Alex Easton
North Down · Independent · Northern Ireland
“I, too, want to raise the issue of Bright Sparks Preschool, which is a feeder preschool for Crawfordsburn Primary School. Last Wednesday, the Education Minister visited Bright Sparks to hear about its excellent work and see all the pupils in the preschool.”
“<BR /> <BR />My annoyance is that I have met the Education Authority with Bright Sparks many times over the past several years, and there has been a lack of effort by the Education Authority to find a solution for a building that it owns.”
“The map shown in the consultation included the entire Newry, Mourne and Down District Council area, which has nothing to do with the South Eastern Trust area. <BR /> <BR />We therefore know that the consultation and the equality impact assessment were a farce and a foregone conclusion.”
“<BR /> <BR />The South Eastern Trust proceeded to say what its plans were. Closure, with the announcement of a new minor injury unit at the Ulster Hospital site, was the only option.”
“How accurate my prediction was: the Bangor minor injury unit never reopened its doors. It was stripped of its equipment even before the consultation was finished.”
“I quote two Alliance councillors, who said that the units had not been "of any use". If they were of no use, why did 22,000 people use the two minor injury units at their height? <BR /> <BR />Over 20,000 people signed a public petition opposed to the closure of the units.”
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“I thank the Minister for his answer. The Minister mentioned reducing the scope that he is going to look at. Can he outline what ways he will reduce the scope of how people can apply? What areas is he looking at?”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. Why did the Minister not consult the Executive? Does he realise that by pulling this stunt he has offended over half the population of Northern Ireland? It is now up to him to apologise to the people of Northern Ireland for not allowing the Union flag on our driving licences. I hold the Minister responsible for this; I think he is ducking and diving.”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. I am not sure whether he will be able to answer this question: can the Minister outline how the newly agreed Budget will enable him to deliver programmes for apprenticeships in north Down?”
“As the economy has improved, have the Minister and her Department noticed an increase in the number of social enterprises that have been established across Northern Ireland?”
“That means that the full cost of the tender, which was more than £60 million of public money over four years, was never properly assessed. The Committee considered that to be unacceptable. <BR /> <BR />The Committee found a significant gap in the business case and concluded that the strength of the PSNI's procurement arrangements at that time was questionable. Before spending public resources, a clear business need must be established, options for meeting that need must be considered properly, and the total amount that the contracting authority expects to pay under the contract must be quantified.”
“In the Committee’s view, that highlighted the lack of control operating at that time and a lack of knowledge of roles and responsibilities by certain staff. The Committee noted, however, that appropriate training has been introduced across the PSNI to ensure that similar mistakes are not repeated. <BR /> <BR />The Committee found that, even when a competitive process for the award of the agency staff contract was introduced in 2008, there were major failings in the procurement process. The PSNI was found to have not completed a business case for the tender exercise until the process was at an advanced stage. The business case did not include salary costs, despite the fact that those amounted to over 90% of the contract value and that their inclusion was a clear requirement of the Public Contracts Regulations 2006.”
“The Committee found that the PSNI’s explanation for why a competitive tendering exercise was not carried out was astonishing. The Committee disagreed with the PSNI’s contention that procurement guidance in the area was not explicit. The Chief Constable has since given an assurance that future contracts will be assessed differently to include full salary costs and will thus be subject to a competitive tendering process. <BR /> <BR />The Committee also found that a very significant extension to the PSNI's agency staff contract was signed by a member of staff for an amount far in excess of their delegated authority. The contract extension led to an increase in spending of £44 million over four years; however, the member of staff who signed off on the contract extension in 2004 had a delegated authority of only £100,000.”
“The Committee emphasised the need to ensure that there are sound operational reasons for the use of temporary staff and clarity on the skills sets needed, and noted that it is hard to justify temporary staff remaining in post for several years without any review or challenge. <BR /> <BR />The award and governance of the contract to provide temporary staff was also an area where the Committee raised concerns, with the current supplier being in place since 2002 and competitive tendering being undertaken only once for those services, in 2008. For much of the period, the PSNI had no assurance that the contract was providing value for money, and it needed much better quality management information to monitor and manage the contract effectively.”
“The use of temporary staff, if properly managed and controlled, can provide value for money; however, in this case, the PSNI did not appear to have tight enough control or monitoring on the use of agency staff and the numbers of temporary staff engaged at times appeared to be excessive. <BR /> <BR />At the peak in 2007, 800 temporary staff were engaged. Even the Chief Constable acknowledged that corporate justification for the numbers was not there. A much firmer grip was needed and, in light of that, the Committee could only conclude that the PSNI spent considerably more on temporary staff than it needed to.”
“The Committee examined the cost and extent of the use of temporary agency staff in the PSNI; something upon which the PSNI has spent £106 million since 2004. It was established that nearly 40% of those employed through an employment agency had previously left the PSNI with a severance package. The examination included whether there was a planned approach to controlling and managing the supply and demand of those staff. <BR /> <BR />The implementation of the Patten report, including the reduction of the overall size of the Police Service by around 8,000 officers, represented an enormous challenge for the PSNI. Like many organisations, it uses temporary staff to cover short-term vacancies and to meet skills and knowledge gaps.”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. On strategic transport priorities, you talked about enhancing east-west connections. What are you are talking about in terms of enhancing those? Will you expand?”
“On a point of order. Last Tuesday, in the debate on the BBC 'Spotlight' programme, the deputy First Minister made comments about unrepentant bigots in the DUP. I am certainly no bigot, and I take great offence at those comments. Will you, Deputy Speaker, take those comments away, have a look at them and come back to the House?”
“<BR /> <BR />It is now, in my humble opinion, time to stop throwing money at the concrete cancer of the school, because it is just not fit for purpose. That will not fix it; it will just get worse; it is crumbling. It is time for a new build, and this evening I call on the Education Minister to fix the wrongs of the past and do what is right for the future of St Columbanus' College. It is time to build a new school, as it is falling apart. It is time to put the pupils, the parents and the teachers at the front. It is time to honour the pledge from the direct rule Minister in the past.”
“Also, we see from an Assembly question on maintenance figures that £254,000 has been spent over the last five years, which is a sizeable amount, but those maintenance figures do not tell the whole story. Health and safety work in the school has cost a further £1·5 million, and a further £180,000 has been spent on minor works, adding up to a total spend over the last three years of a staggering nearly £1·8 million. <BR /> <BR />Minister, as we know, St Columbanus' College is putting a development proposal to you that will include a growth in intake from the current 90 to 115. Last year alone the school attracted 130 applications for year 8, yet it cannot even get a temporary variation, which is endangering its inclusive education model. I hope that the Minister will look sympathetically at that.”
“So you can see the amount being spent on heating a building that is not fit for purpose.”
“<BR /> <BR />The story of a new build for St Columbanus' College is not a new one. It is rather worrying and disturbing to hear that, in 2006, the college was only 16 weeks away from getting a new build agreed by the then direct rule Minister, Angela Smith. That was pulled, in 2010, by the then Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane. Since then, £900,000 has been spent on the planning fees for the build, only for it to be scrapped. That was a scandalous waste of money. <BR /> <BR />The school, as we know, has a lot of major problems. As well as having concrete cancer, it needs a new roof and a new heating system to replace the current one. The response to an Assembly question on the heating bill was that, in 2013-14, the college had to spend £32,000 and, in the year before that, it spent £36,000.”
“The number of students completing A levels at the college is still on the rise, and there has been approximately a fourfold increase over the last three years. <BR /> <BR />St Columbanus' College has around 600 pupils from all types of backgrounds, with 50% from the Roman Catholic community and 50% from the Protestant and other faiths. There is quite a range of faiths in the school. It also has 39 members of staff. The college is 54 years of age and, in my opinion, was not built to modern-day standards of health and safety requirements. Its structures suffer from concrete cancer. As anyone who knows about that will tell you, it cannot be cured. It is also present in the Ulster Hospital. The only way to fix the condition is to knock down the building and rebuild it, in my opinion.”
“I should start the debate with a brief history of St Columbanus' College before going into the issues and problems that it is experiencing with its current building and how those must be addressed. <BR /> <BR />The foundation stones of the college were laid in August 1959. The college offered a wide curriculum when it was opened, and there was an emphasis on the teaching of vocational and technical skills. Many pupils left at the age of 15 to take up employment, though a small GCSE class remained to study for external examinations. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw a significant growth in enrolment, which required a major extension to the original building. In 2001, the college established a sixth form, allowing post-GCSE pupils to remain and study there.”
“Will the Member agree with me that the cut to the maintenance budget is quite serious and that maybe the Minister's Department could have looked at other avenues to try to find funding through his Department such as savings to the £3,000 worth of taxis that his Department uses or looking at reducing the fuel costs of £2·4 million for the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company and, indeed, the Translink reserves of £25 million? Surely there is room for savings there that could have helped without making these cuts.”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. I am sure that the Minister is aware of the excellent work that Charter NI does in training and providing education courses for young people, especially those from a Protestant working-class background. The only problem is trying to get work placements. Is there anything more that the Minister, through his Department, could do to help Charter NI to get work placements?”
“Does the Minister agree that crime around the border would be tackled much more easily if the National Crime Agency were devolved to Northern Ireland? Does he agree that the failure of Sinn Féin and the SDLP to have the National Crime Agency is helping to allow criminals to get away with crime around the border?”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. Will he explain to the House the criteria used to choose schools and in what order they are chosen for capital new builds? How does his Department process who gets and who does not?”
“I will be personally writing to them to bring to their attention what was said at the fleadh and ask whether they are happy to have their money spent in this way. <BR /> <BR />What future do our young people have when they are being brought up and taught to hate in this way through the actions of this band? I was born in Northern Ireland, and nobody is going to tell me to move to England. I am here to stay, and so is my community.”
“We are supposed to be living in a country of peace with a shared future and equality. I am beginning to have doubts that we are. I fail to see the equality that is said to exist in this country when a band makes comments about soldiers going home and Orange members going to live in England. <BR /> <BR />I feel that the decision needs to be reviewed and future funding withdrawn from sectarian-fuelled events such as the Ardoyne Fleadh, which simply promotes hatred towards the Protestant, unionist and loyalist people. The funders were the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Ireland, DCAL, the Community Relations Council, Atlantic Philanthropies, Flax Trust and Ladbrokes.”
“They were not to lead young people in bigoted, pro-IRA chanting and the incitement of sectarianism at a music festival. <BR /> <BR />It was also reported that the event could be heard from the Shankill and that the volume was turned up considerably at around midnight. People could clearly hear the pro-IRA songs and chanting in their homes. That was not only provocative but particularly distressing for the elderly residents and people who live in those areas. The fact that these comments were made in an interface area where people are trying to build cross-community relationships has made this even more difficult. <BR /> <BR />In my opinion, the PPS has let us down greatly by failing to prosecute for these words. The DPP should also be ashamed for defending the "no prosecutions" ruling.”
“The grant criteria are as follows: to enable groups to provide emergency diversionary activities that reduce the potential for community conflict; to support initiatives that enable immediate dialogue and discussion to take place to address contentious community relations issues; to support programmes that seek to engage with hard-to-reach groups and involve them in community relations activities; to support mediation initiatives that are aimed at addressing key community relations issues that arise unexpectedly; to support information exchange networks between community activists involved in addressing and reducing the potential for community conflict at times of heightened conflict; and to support community safety initiatives aimed to reduce the potential for community violence as a result of civil unrest.”
“The scheme is aimed primarily at projects that seek to address difficult and contentious issues that require an immediate or innovative response. The scheme can provide support to young people where there is a significant impact on the prevention of community conflict, particularly during key times of community tension.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. I wholeheartedly agree with his comments. Maybe the deputy First Minister needs to come and explain himself. <BR /> <BR />The Community Relations Council supported this year's Ardoyne Fleadh by means of a £5,000 grant towards infrastructure costs and marketing. The grant was subject to conditions, one of which was that it should be used to support the values and aims of the Community Relations Council. The CRC will be following its usual process in these circumstances by asking the event organisers to respond to the reports to determine whether the conditions of the grant have been complied with. <BR /> <BR />The purpose of the pathfinder project scheme is to be a mechanism that can respond to needs and address urgent community relations issues.”
“If you are one of the 5,000 soldiers based in Northern Ireland, are you seriously being told that, even though many of those soldiers are bomb disposal officers who are busy on a daily basis risking their life to deal with real bombs and hoaxes left by so-called dissident republicans? I do not believe that that is right. If I were to make comments of a similar nature about the Ancient Order of Hibernians or Irish citizens, Members from the Benches across the way would be calling for my head, and I believe that I would be prosecuted for those comments.”
“Many Members of the Assembly and the wider public have been left shocked, hurt and bewildered by the comments made at the Ardoyne Fleadh on Sunday 24 August by a member of the Druids who said to the audience that British soldiers in Ireland should get together with their Orange comrades and go back to England. I do not want to use the other word that was included. In fact, I could not believe what I heard, and I actually had to play the YouTube video three times just to make sure that I heard what I heard. Those comments are a disgrace. As a member of the Orange Order, am I being told that I have to go and live in England?”