Okay, ignore the Grauniad’s misidentification of Nigel Dodds as the leader of the DUP, and focus on the subject of the Op Ed…. In contrast to most of the political mudslinging that passes for politics in Westminster these days, the tone is incredibly relaxed and polite. Before he gets to the main course, here’s the opener: It’s a pity if the two – current – main parties can’t make themselves attractive enough to most voters, but it explains where we …
In their bid to get back control the message in this debate, Sinn Fein have launched their dossier outling why they have Petition of Concerned the Stormont House Agreement. There appears to have been a great deal of contact between the party and the DUP advisor, Stephen Brimstone. The entire document is well worth a read, but here is Sinn Fein’s chronology of events 17th Dec-Peter Robinson presented a proposal to the five Executive parties (Paper 2) which was rejected …
In today’s Irish News John Manley does everyone a favour by identifying Sinn Fein’s problem with the agreement they signed up to in December. The nub of the problem appears to lie in the figures contained in the Stormont Castle Agreement, an agreement within an agreement negotiated between the five parties days before the final accord was signed off on December 23. In annex A of this sub-agreement, the figures for the planned welfare safety net are outlined. It earmarks …
The warning is there in Martin McGuinness’ speech to his party’s ard fheis on Friday evening. Of course, as George Mitchell famously pointed out, the most difficult phase of any agreement is the implementation. That is the phase we are now in but let me give you this commitment: The welfare protections we agreed are an absolute red line issue for SF. No matter how difficult the implementation process may get, we will not – under any circumstances – tolerate …
According to Sinn Féin national chairperson Declan Kearney, [Don’t mention the Dark Side! – Ed] …Sinn Féin from 2011 onwards opposed the proposed welfare cuts and insisted welfare protection was absolutely fundamental for all citizens. “That is why Sinn Féin politically campaigned against welfare cuts alongside trade unions and grassroots communities. “This principle guided our strategy during the Stormont House negotiations and why, in December last, when the other four Executive parties agreed to a deal on welfare, Sinn Féin …
To be fair, I nicked that headline from Derek Mooney, a former FF special advisor, so there is an evident and intended spin to it. And yet it contains more than just a grain of truth to it. Having nearly collapsed the Assembly [Aye right! – Ed] Sinn Fein accepted the outline of a deal it had originally co-produced with the DUP with very little clear detail on what extra money would be forthcoming. Courtesy of Gerry Moriarty in the Irish Times, Martin McGuinness …
Welfare Reform, austerity, cuts and Tories-these are the words of the day at Stormont. Here are some of the pictures doing the rounds from the SDLP about the Welfare Reform bill A full list of the amendments to the Welfare Reform bill can be found here Then the SDLP put this out there Arguments for SDLP position: They are honouring a position set out to oppose the initial opposition for Welfare Reform. The party are seeking to actually have a …
One of the most significant outcomes of the Stormont House Agreement was an agreement to extend to Northern Ireland the reforms to the welfare system that have been introduced in Great Britain. These reforms were persistently blocked by Sinn Féin, who did not want to endorse what they termed “Tory cuts”. The Treasury has fined the Executive £114m in the current budget for failure to implement the reforms, but they now look as though they are going to be introduced. …
.@SDLPlive says it has no plans to ratify Stormont Hse agreement but will work to implement positive aspects. See Saturday’s @irish_news — Irish News Politics (@politicsIN) January 10, 2015 Interesting story in the Irish News that the party will not fully ratify the Stormont House Agreement. The party has reservations about the silence of the agreement on issues such as the Bill of Rights and the Irish Language Act. In addition to this, while the party recognises progress on Welfare …
From the BBC Prime Minister David Cameron said he was delighted a workable agreement had been reached. Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Charlie Flanagan said it “sets out a plan for financial and welfare reform.” First Minister Peter Robinson said he would be recommending the document to his party executive. Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt said no party was able to give the agreed proposals 100% endorsement as “they all have their own processes”, but he said he would ask …
The Executive Parties have agreed a deal on welfare reform and have sent a paper to the NIO outlining an agreement. Earlier Martin McGuinness tweeted that there had been “a step change” in the atmosphere at the talks. Progress at the talks had seemed unlikely and there were suggestions that they could have drawn to a close today in the absence of signs of an agreement.
The number of food banks is on the rise in Northern Ireland. According to Advice NI, the number of food banks in Northern Ireland has increased from two in 2011, to at least 14 in 2014, and Trussell Trust reports distributing more than 11,000 free food parcels this year. Churches have taken a lead in mobilising volunteers, distributing food parcels to those in need, and working with charity and statutory organisations to get people the support they need to improve their circumstances. …
With the threat of Stormont collapsing gaining more headlines in our papers, a group called Make it Work has emerged to pressure civil society into engaging positively with the political process. Writing for Slugger, Peter McBride, Chair of ‘Make It Work’ argues for a positive approach towards our devolved administration. Why would we have to mount a campaign to make this place work? That sums up the challenge perfectly – it isn’t working. Our politicians have made enormous progress since …
This is my response to an article on Slugger O’Toole describing welfare reform as the “horror show“. The article itself was excellent, in the sense that it gave an entirely fair commentary of many of the opinions held on welfare reform (albeit limited to a particular, often unrepresentative sector). However, most of these are based on scaremongering, if not pure fantasy. It is worth noting that this applies to all sides of the “debate”. A few of the myths, therefore… …
Two days ago Finance Minister, Simon Hamilton MLA presented his draft budget. Writing exclusively for Slugger, he argues that in this budget he has done what is right for Northern Ireland Constructing a Budget at any time is always a challenge. There is never enough money to spend on public services to meet all of the demands placed on government. Agreeing a Budget in the circumstances we find ourselves in Northern Ireland is even more difficult. Our Budget has not …
The brinkmanship over the budget is over. The emptiness of a threat to return to Direct Rule has been exposed. Martin McGuinness’s attempts to create a late Hallowe’en scare over the prospects of what Direct Rule might mean in reality amounted to the agenda for future Executive action that still awaits – including water charges and perhaps some hike in university tuition charges for the many who can afford them. The parties belatedly bowed to the inevitable at a cost of an unnecessary …
Yesterday the Finance Minister, Simon Hamilton proposed his draft budget. Writing for Slugger the Leader of the SDLP, Alasdair McDonnell MP, argues that a tough budget need not be an unfair budget This draft budget is a bad budget – one that puts political expediency above the needs of the people that it is supposed to serve. The trouble began with the DUP’s unilateral negotiation and Sinn Féin’s unilateral acceptance of a 100m loan from the Treasury. The SDLP opposed …
Well, our government still stands tonight as the DUP and Sinn Fein have agreed a draft budget with the SDLP voting against and the UUP and Alliance parties abstaining on the vote. Both Sinn Fein and the DUP have the numbers to get the budget throught the Assembly. It took a while to get here, but a deal has been done that will keep things going in the interim. Speaking about the budget the Deputy First Minister said; the best …
At the NICVA offices along the Duncairn Gardens on Wednesday, an important conference was held to open up debate about the future of welfare reform in Northern Ireland. It was one of those crisp autumn days which one likes to think of as typical of the atmosphere of cool, reasoned thinking. After heated debate over welfare reform and the budget throughout the summer, which seemed to rock the foundations of our devolved political institutions, the conference, titled, “Welfare Reform: …
On Monday night I caught up with the Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary, Ivan Lewis MP to get his views on welfare reform, the Secretary of State and his own future as he marks a year in the job. I began by asking him, how he thought the Secretary of State was handling the current talk’s process that is on-going at Stormont? Ivan began by welcoming the fact that the government had finally moved to engage with the political process in Northern …
