THE WEEK THAT WAS….
“He shall separate them one from another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.” Matthew 25:32
The pall of volcanic ash causing merry havoc with European airspace wasn’t the only biblical portent of doom playing on people’s minds this week. The good folk at DARD were also getting in on the act with a snazzy press release entitled ‘Sheep & Goat Identity Inspectors Appointed’ – although on closer examination it transpired that it had less to do with divinely inspired ‘Revelationary-outsourcing’ from above, and more to do with the rather more mundane Sheep and Goats (Records, Identification and Movement) Order (NI) 2009.
The event of the week in Stormont was, of course, the appointment of the Alliance leader, David Ford, as the new Justice Minister. Possibly, just possibly if you squint hard enough, you could imagine the bearded Mr. Ford as a latter-day Moses-figure, tasked with delivering a new legal code for the ‘stiff-necked Children of Ulster’.
Unfortunately for Mr. Ford, a Presbyterian Church elder, the manifestation of miracles which Moses benefitted from in the wilderness are likely to be less forthcoming in his current position. Indeed, some would argue that the ‘miracle quota’ has already been well and truly allocated just to get as far as his election.
It’ll be interesting to see how Mr. Ford fares in our ‘partnership Government’, given that both the SDLP and UUP believe that the new Minister has pilfered his position at their expense, and the DUP and Sinn Fein regard him as a useful sticking plaster to help patch up their irreconcilable differences over justice issues. Plus, the rather tasteless welcome present from dissident Republicans in the form of a car bomb to spook the spooks in Holywood, would suggest that Mr. Ford will have more on his plate than just deflating Northern Ireland’s bloated legal-aid system.
Clearly though, minds at Stormont have meandered off to the more pressing political matter of the General Election. Don’t expect too much excitement until after May 6th.
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
Oral Answers
The Deputy First Minister talked up the opportunities for future US investment and the benefits of a US Investment Conference to be held in the autumn. He also committed support for a new police / fire service college in Cookstown but that both the new Justice Department and the Health Department would have to back its business case.
The Environment Minister again defended officials involved in the Knock Golf Course planning application and fielded a number of questions about conflicts of interest /confidentiality within the Planning Service. Sadly there was little humour in the Finance Minister’s round-up this week, but he did accuse the Education Minister of a “terminological inexactitude” regarding her plans to cut support to Prep schools.
Written Answers
Not too many Written Questions following the Easter break, but DCAL did note that the Ulster Folk & Transport Museum attracted 169,000 visitors last year. DEL addressed plans by the University of Ulster in Coleraine to add more wind turbines (it was the first in the UK to introduce them) while DETI disclosed that Invest NI has offered £16m over the past five years in assistance to Energy from Waste projects.
DFP revealed that there are 74 outstanding Civil Service staff grievances from 2008, Health paid out £11m in doctors’ bonuses last year and DRD advised that the four NI Water Board Members who were dismissed recently received a daily fee of £750. The Assembly Commission confirmed that the Assembly Library costs £690K to run annually.
COMMITTEES
Bairbre de Brun & Diane Dodds, the Sinn Fein and DUP MEPs, graced OFMDFM, DARD got down and dirty with Organic Farming, DFP was updated on PEDU and Education was still detained on the painful question of removing funding for Prep schools.
High Hedges were overshadowing DoE, DETI was energized by the head of the Single Electricity Market and SONI while DEL was briefed about a future skills needs analysis for the local workforce.
AND FINALLY….
The thing about stereotypes is that there’s usually a grain of truth in their genesis; thus it was in this week’s debate about extra support for bookies and horse racing. Willie Clarke (Sinn Fein, South Down) was quick to chip in with his pleasure at winning a Grand National sweepstake, while the more conservative DUP MLA, Jim Shannon, representing those who don’t like gambling, quipped that his knowledge of horses was limited to knowing that “King Billy rode one at the Battle of the Boyne.”
Mind you, the new Justice Minister joked in 2001 that he didn’t mind being the “back-end of a pantomime horse” when he helped save a previous incarnation of the Assembly. Fortunately for him, such was the tortuous process which led to his appointment, he’d have to be spectacularly bad at his job before he could be put out to pasture….
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