THE WEEK THAT WAS….
“Silent Night, Holy Night. All is calm, all is bright. Round yon Virgin Mother and Child, Holy Infant so tender and mild. Sleep in heavenly peace. Sleep in heavenly peace.”
Ah, don’t you just love a traditional Belfast Christmas. Bockwurst hot dogs from the Continental Market at City Hall, a minor celebrity turning on the Christmas lights and young children engaged in recreational sectarian rioting. It’s a pity not more of the City’s nine year olds bare a resemblance to the Holy Infant – can’t be easy grabbing forty winks of heavenly sleep in the back of a paddy wagon.
Although the small burning barricade on Castle Street was providing more atmosphere than the flames licking round the chestnut roaster’s brazier, we can at least be grateful that this year’s guest, Bob the Builder, didn’t bring his usual array of building materials – they’re ideal for turning a contretemps into a full blooded inter-communal ding-dong.
While the kids chucked stones in the streets the Assembly debate on double-jobbing proved the age-old maxim that people who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. The UUP may have been keen to maximize discomfort for the DUP by arguing that the practice should be ruled out by 2011 and not 2015, but it did leave them somewhat exposed.
While everyone agreed to the principle of a single mandate for a single job, it didn’t take long for others to point out the UUP’s inconsistency. Dr. Farry (North Down, Alliance) couldn’t help but notice that the two current UUP Ministers are also members of Belfast City Council and had on one occasion left an Executive meeting to attend a council vote.
The DUP also calculated that MPs who were MLAs actually had a better voting record in Stormont than their non-double jobbing peers. They also took great umbrage to recent remarks at the UUP conference by the Shadow Foreign Secretary, William Hague, who clocked up £800,000 in 2004 from his non-Westminster jobs. Given, however, that the DUP may soon be seeking to drawdown favours from a certain ‘Dave’ Cameron at No. 10, chucking stones at the Tories with such glee may not be the brightest tactic.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Oral Questions
The First Minister dodged a question about whether he would welcome a visit to Northern Ireland by the Pope and repeated the line that the current DUP / SF joint office of OFMDFM is better at making decisions than the previous SDLP / UUP incarnation.
The DARD Minister didn’t shed any light on how her Department managed a fortyfold overvaluation of a site at Crossnacreevy, but did receive fulsome praise from the UUP benches for working her way through 10 questions. The DCAL Minister, meanwhile, was less than fulsome in his enthusiasm for how the Ulster-Scots Agency and IFA operate, and complained that his sports strategy is still lost in the “ether” of the Executive.
Written Answers
OFMDFM has spent almost £11m on Good Relations (evidently not within their own Dept.) while DARD has consulted an incredible 750 groups about its Animal Welfare Bill since 2006 (tellingly, only 92 submitted a response). DCAL has provided £500K in funding to bands since 2004, DETI noted that 304,000 people stayed in holiday caravans last year and DoE is keen to introduce enabling legislation to facilitate the creation of National Parks.
DFP revealed that Derry City council area has the worst rate of Civil Service sickness levels while DSD confirmed that Foyle also has the highest number of incapacity benefit claimants.
COMMITTEES
DARD is still sowing the seeds of its Forestry Bill, DFP was examining procurement policy and Belfast International Airport was whispering sweet nothings into the DRD Committee’s ear about their rival’s plans to extend the runway at George Best.
OFMDFM was considering strategic investment and regeneration opportunities, Education discussed Special Education Needs and DoE mused over the 2010 Carbon Reduction Commitment Order. Fuel Poverty is still burning a hole in DSD’s activities, NI Manufacturing urged DETI to take action to cool soaring energy bills and Health scrubbed up on the disturbing lack of hygiene in some local hospitals.
AND FINALLY….
It’s getting to the stage soon when it’ll be more informative to base Stormont Watch on what isn’t been done rather than what is. To add to the woes of Policing & Justice (P&J), the DCAL Minister raised the lack of agreement on minority languages and sports strategies. The absent Cohesion, Sharing and Integration strategy also raised its head in a cameo non-appearance.
Not wishing to miss out, the Reform of Public Administration is also making a daring bid to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory and may come undone over a boundary disagreement concerning the “dreary steeples” of Dunmurry.
P&J, however, remains odds-on favourite to deliver the Assembly a knockout blow of post-Christmas indigestion. We’re not quite there yet, but sentiment is starting to shift to ‘when’ rather than ‘might’ the institutions collapse. A bit extreme, but it will certainly help solve the double-jobbing issue.
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