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 do not see the need for drop-off points, such as the one created in Main Street, Bangor, which took away further car parking spaces, was not even wanted by traders and is still abused by delivery van drivers who cannot be bothered to go to the loading bays at the rear of the shop premises. <BR /> <BR />The Department remains the transport authority and retains responsibility for on-street parking. It is vital that the Department starts to listen to the needs of local businesses in struggling town centres, and that means working with councils and preparing local transport strategies. I understand that the Department is looking at this, but it is taking far too long. It needs to take an approach much more quickly, as time is everything to local businesses.”
“In fact, it was the then Ulster Unionist Regional Development Minister who announced — without any shame, I might add — his intention to generate income of £2·1 million from off-street car parking charges in provincial towns and from on-street charges. <BR /> <BR />The majority of on-street parking is free, with exceptions in Belfast, Lisburn and Newry. Usually, drivers are allowed to park for one hour before having to move. In my opinion, that needs to be reduced to 30 minutes to encourage more people to go into their town to get their messages and move on so that others can then afford of the same time, thereby encouraging quick access and helping more people to afford parking.”
“It is deeply worrying that the Department for Infrastructure is relying on penalty charge notices. In my opinion, overzealous car parking attendants are actively competing to raise as much revenue as possible as an alternative source of income for the Department. That is wrong. It sends out the wrong message, damages local businesses and needs to be addressed.”
“Thank you. There certainly seems to be an imbalance across Northern Ireland. There does not seem to be the same approach. That needs to be addressed urgently. <BR /> <BR />A negative and costly experience in any town will have an impact on someone's decision to return to shops there. That is coupled with the extortionate fines being handed out to those who are only minutes late back to their car: they get £90 fines. That, however, is reduced to £45 if it is paid within a certain number of days, which, I believe, is 14 days. A total of £4·5 million has been raised from parking penalty charge notices from 2015 up to March 2016. That figure was given in response to an Assembly question from my colleague Carla Lockhart. I found it disturbing that the response to the question stated:”
“<BR /> <BR />As is the case in England, Northern Ireland's towns and cities have suffered from significant decline over many years, principally due to the increased presence of out-of-town retail developments. That was a key conclusion in the Northern Ireland Assembly Social Development Committee's inquiry into town centre regeneration in 2009. There needs to be a rethink on the lack of free car parking spaces, a rethink on the level of fines and a rethink on the amount of time someone can have access to a car parking space free of charge. Shoppers want to be able to come into our towns in a way that does not cause them hassle and lead to complications, and the only way to do that is to encourage them in through easier parking.”
“There is real concern, especially among local businesses in our towns, that current parking issues and car parking fine levels hamper trade and cause real hardship for some of those businesses. In Bangor, there have been serious issues with the lack of available car parking provision for Main Street, with such provision having been taken away under the recent public realm work. To bring shoppers back into our struggling town centres, there need to be incentives for shoppers to do so. It is not enough for businesses to put sales on continually; the public need and want easy access to parking, which will enable our town centres to compete with out-of-town shopping centres that offer attractive free car parking, which gives them an unfair advantage.”
“I thank the Minister for her answers so far. I understand that Northern Ireland Water has accepted responsibility for the fish kill at the Annsborough. Has it been associated with many fish kills previously?”
“I thank the Minister for his answer. Will he agree with me that the best way to attract foreign investment is to have the best transport infrastructure in place? Would a train halt outside the George Best Belfast City Airport not help to do that and increase passenger numbers?”
“I thank the Minister for her answer so far. Would she consider reopening the Bangor GP ward to deal with any additional bed pressures?”
“I thank the Minister for his answer so far. Can he explain why my constituency is having the least capital structural maintenance expenditure spent on it, with the likes of Beechfield Drive and William Street in Donaghadee, which are well over 40 years old and falling apart, being ignored?”
“I thank the First Minister for her answers so far. Is she satisfied with the level of engagement with the UK Government? Does she support the triggering of article 10 by the end of March next year?”
“While they are helpful, they do not resolve the budget shortfall. <BR /> <BR />To the party that tabled the motion, I say that it is all well and good to highlight the problems. However, can they tell us where they would get the money to fix these problems? What budgets would they cut from other Departments, and how would they pay for any extra funding?”
“There have been 7,500 claims lodged with Transport NI since 2011, with an average annual payout of £200,000. It has been revealed that there are more than 20,000 potholes across Northern Ireland. Had we had more resources for our maintenance budgets, many of those claims would simply not have happened, as the repairs to the footpaths and potholes would have helped prevent many accidents and tripping incidents. The result would have been that more money would have been saved and could have gone back into the maintenance budget. <BR /> <BR />There is not enough money, and we need to look at that if we are to address the problem. I have no doubt that there will be moneys coming through in future monitoring rounds. However, should the Department be relying on those monitoring rounds?”
“Despite that, it is up to the Minister to decide how he gives the money to his Department to spend. However, that does not mean that I am not sympathetic to the shortfall in funding and do not recognise the need for more money. I recognise that many of the complaints that many of us are getting have been about potholes, grass not getting cut, street lights being out and, especially, a lack of weed spraying. Only one weed spray has been done by Transport NI this year, and that does not cut the mustard. <BR /> <BR />We can see from the evidence that failure to do the basic maintenance leads to major problems. For example, it has been revealed that £1 million has been paid out in compensation to drivers whose cars have been damaged by road defects over the last five years.”
“The extra £5·3 million in resource funding allowed for two grass cuts, at a cost of £300,000; gully emptying, at £600,000; pothole repairs and patching, at £3·1 million; road markings, at £500,000; fixing of street lighting, at £500,000; and some repairs to flooding hotspot areas, at a cost of £300,000. <BR /> <BR />I agree that there has been a problem over several years with not enough resources being set aside for road maintenance. That has meant potholes not being repaired, street lights not being repaired, limited weed spraying and grass verges not being cut. All those things are important to the public, yet Transport NI is failing to get them done due to budget constraints. We can ask ourselves why maintenance is not being done, and the reasons are simple: our block grant has been cut and money is a lot tighter.”
“I support the motion and the amendment. The total resource budget for the Department for Infrastructure for the 2016-17 period was £372·8 million. That was a 5·7% budget reduction and a £21 million shortfall on previous budgets. That has added to the accelerating backlog — now at £1 billion — of maintenance issues that need resolved. <BR /> <BR />On the capital side, the total allocation to the Department was £384 million. That budget incorporated a ring-fenced allocation of £46 million for roads structural maintenance. We also see from the June monitoring round that the Department received additional resource funding of £5·3 million and additional capital funding of £22·9 million; a total of £28·2 million.”
“Thank you for your statement, Minister. You mentioned the disposal of properties by Waterways Ireland. What are these properties and assets?”
“As we enter talks on Brexit, we will enter a whole new set of negotiations for new and exciting global deals that we in Northern Ireland want to benefit from. If we want to benefit, it makes sense to invest in a rail link from Belfast to our main airport and show the world that we are open for business, investment and job opportunities.”
“I thank the Member for his useless information. <BR /> <BR />Dr Bolan further said that, if Northern Ireland had serious ambitions to develop its economy by bringing in investment from places such as China or North America, it must improve its transport infrastructure, particularly to the main airport:”
“In 2014, Dr Peter Bolan, director for international travel and tourism management at Ulster University, stated that the lack of a rail link to Belfast International Airport was detrimental to Northern Ireland and one of the reasons that there had a been a failure to secure a long-haul route to Canada.”
“I argue that, if we had the right railway connection in place from the airport to Belfast, that would attract passengers and foreign investment and enable us to compete with our neighbours and increase those numbers even more quickly. <BR /> <BR />The potential cost of reopening the Antrim to Knockmore line and providing a link to Belfast would be in and around £50 million. That would involve the rehabilitation and resignalling of the track between Antrim and Knockmore, the construction of a single-track spur and a rail halt at the airport, two additional trains, station renewals at Ballinderry, Crumlin and Glenavy and a park-and-ride. Failure to do those things would be folly.”
“<BR /> <BR />One of the main arguments that will be used for the case not to reopen the Antrim to Knockmore/Lisburn line will be that such an investment would not be viable because of airport passenger numbers, which in 2013 stood at around four million, and that, for the project to be viable, numbers need to grow to about 10 million. However, I argue that airport numbers are projected to grow to the 10 million mark by 2030. We can see from current levels that there has been an 8·9% increase in the past year, as well as a 2·5% increase in aircraft movements. We can see that there is positive movement in increased flight and passenger numbers.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. I agree with that. <BR /> <BR />If we fail to act on the motion, our competitors will have the economic edge. We are aware that the former Department for Regional Development undertook a public consultation during 2013 and produced the 'Railway Investment Prioritisation Strategy', which was about how we could take forward and prioritise future investment in the Northern Ireland rail network up to 2035. One of the priorities identified was priority 3, which is what we are talking about today.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention, and I do not disagree with him. I thank him for that. <BR /> <BR />OK, jobs —”
“For example, a second runway at Dublin Airport and a rail network straight into Dublin from the airport are under serious consideration. If we are serious about attracting foreign investment and jobs —”
“The lack of a fast, efficient rail network from Belfast to the International Airport is criminal and short-sighted and hampers growth and foreign investment in our local economy. We know that one of the main factors in attracting business and, indeed, foreign airline companies to Northern Ireland is to have the right infrastructure in place for quick and easy access from the airport for passengers and businesses to the main investment hubs. The way to do that is to have a fast transport system. In a world that moves at a quick pace, we in Northern Ireland lack that facility and are lagging behind our competitors. <BR /> <BR />We know that our main competitors are seriously looking at the possibility of extending their infrastructure.”
“It is, therefore, vital, if we are to compete in a global economy, that our international airport has the best possible infrastructure in place to attract all those aims.”
“I rise to support the motion and say from the outset that the motion is a no-brainer. At a time when we want to improve lives, enhance trade, create jobs, attract foreign investment and compete on a level playing field with our neighbours, we need to ensure that we have the best possible infrastructure to support those aims.”
“Does the Minister believe that the temporary classrooms will definitely be in place for next year, given that there will be an increase in numbers again? Is that a definite?”
“I welcome the statement from the Minister. Although £10 million is going to the rural network, can he give a guarantee that the urban network will not suffer as a result of the funding going there?”
“How long will it take to fix the backlog of street lights across Northern Ireland still to be fixed that the Minister mentioned?”
“How will the new driver restrictions be communicated to the public?”
“I intend to be extremely short and to speak on amendment No 8, not on amendment Nos 9 or 10, and amendment Nos 11, 12, 13 and 14 in relation to activities. On amendment No 8, at Consideration Stage there was some concern about the language around organ donation in terms of the relationship of the act of donation, rather than transplantation. This amendment corrects that. In amendment Nos 11, 12, 13 and 14, which deal with leaving out "activities", the amendments simply change the wording and make it less complicated by referring to "transplantation" and removing any references to "transplantation activities".”
“<BR /> <BR />Amendment Nos 7 and 16 are technical, and I do not intend to speak on them.”
“I intend to speak on amendment Nos 4 and 6 and amendment No 5; I do not intend to speak on amendment Nos 7 and 16. Amendment Nos 4 and 6 remove the duty to consult and replace it with a study. That will allow the Department sufficient time to commission a study on the impact of such a tax and look at any potential legal challenge. It would also allow the Department to look at EU trade and human rights issues, the potential for this to cause problems with food poverty and the potential impact on businesses and jobs. <BR /> <BR />Amendment No 5 will allow the Department more time, due to the complexity of the study, to prepare itself. The study will require extensive research and work, so extending the period for it to be carried out to two years makes sense.”
“Amendment No 2 relates to clause 6. New clause 6 requires the Department to review the implementation of the Act three years after its commencement. The Act is required to have a phased commencement as there is no definite starting date. The amendment, therefore, allows and requires the Department to publish a review three years after the commencement of the clause rather than the Act. That will also allow for the terms of the review to be set out. <BR /> <BR />Amendment Nos 3 and 15 are technical, and I do not intend to speak on them.”
“I intend to speak on amendment Nos 1 and 2 in group 1 but not amendment Nos 3 and 15. The amendments were brought to the Health Committee last week. The Committee decided to note them as no officials were available at that time. However, the Minister stated that he intended to tidy up amendment No 1 in this Part of the Bill at an earlier stage. That amendment will introduce a clause that will allow offences to apply to private vehicles where under-18s are present and allow for fixed penalties, as well as providing for the option of a dual approach with enforcement authorities. The Health Minister has also gone on to assure Members that, as there has not been a public consultation, his intention is to carry out a full consultation at regulation stage.”
“Why has the Minister not brought forward a gambling reform Bill?”
“<BR /> <BR />Amendment No 7 places a duty on the Department to report on an annual basis on organ transplantation, on how successful the strategy is and on awareness activities that take place to promote and highlight the issue in local communities. It also ensures that the Department will report its opinion every five years on whether the provisions have been effective in promoting the transplantation activities and on any recommendations the Department considers. <BR /> <BR />Amendment No 8 is the long title, and there is really not a lot to say on that.”
“I agree with the Chair that the Committee and the experts, the Churches and charity groups that gave evidence agreed unanimously — this was the only thing that we could all agree on — that education and promoting public awareness was the way to do this. That is where all the evidence pointed us, and that is why I support that. <BR /> <BR />Amendment No 6 proposes placing a duty on the Department to promote organ transplantation in a campaign that informs the public at least once a year. That was echoed to the Committee by the experts and was seen as the best way to increase organ donation. The clinicians and medical experts all supported that. I trust the experts, because I believe they are the ones to advise us and that that is the way we have to go.”
“I will speak to the group 3 amendments, which are on the duty to promote information and awareness of human transplantation, and on amendment Nos 6, 7 and 8, which I support. I will wholeheartedly support all those amendments, although I will say that it was a wee bit cheeky for the party opposite to lift somebody else's Bill. However, I recognise that the contents of the amendments are far too important to be just let go. I agree that they must be taken forward, especially after the evidence brought to the Committee by clinicians and experts. While, like I said, it was a wee bit cheeky, it probably is the right thing to do.”
“<BR /> <BR />I call on the Minister to maybe look at it at some stage in the future when all the facts are known and clear. At this moment in time, I am not able to support it without the facts and without the Committee being able to discuss it properly.”
“While this is probably a well-intentioned amendment, I do not believe that consultation on the issue will achieve anything. The evidence is not clear that it would work. It is not even clear that the Assembly has the power to introduce a tax anyway; this is probably a Westminster issue. It would use up a lot of departmental resources that are focused on other things to produce a consultation within a year. <BR /> <BR />Such a tax would be regressive and would have the biggest impact on the poorest families, potentially exacerbating food poverty. Based on what little we know, we are not clear whether we can do this, and without being able to take advice on the impact, I would tend to err on the side of caution on the issue.”
“I believe that it should be a joint role and responsibility, and there should have been consultation to see how that would affect those services. Amendment No 5 calls for a review, which I do not quite understand the need for. If we stop everybody smoking in cars, what is the point of a review on stopping everybody smoking in cars? We are doing the job — making sure that we stop people smoking — and that will improve everybody's life.”
“Some 17,163 people were admitted to hospital in Northern Ireland due to smoking-related causes in 2012-13. The estimated hospital costs of treating smoking-related illnesses in Northern Ireland were in the region of £164 million a year, based on figures from 2011-12, so it is probably substantially more than that now. I welcome anything that helps to reduce deaths and costs in our hospitals. <BR /> <BR />I will not support amendment No 2; it duplicates amendment No 1 and is not really needed. Amendment No 3 deals with fixed penalties. It has a flaw, in my opinion, in that it should partly be the role of councils to issue fixed penalties, and there does not seem to have been any consultation with the PSNI and the councils on that.”
“Thank you, Mr Chair. I rise to speak on the prohibition on smoking in enclosed vehicles and on amendment Nos 1, 2, 3 and 4. I will be supporting amendment No 1, although I believe that it may need tidying up at a later stage. In written and oral evidence to the Committee, the BMA recommended the inclusion of a new provision that would prohibit smoking in private vehicles carrying children under the age of 18. It also recommended that further consideration should be given to extending the ban to include smoking in all private motor vehicles, regardless of the age of the driver and passenger, and I believe that the amendment helps to do that. <BR /> <BR />Smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable illness and premature deaths in Northern Ireland, killing approximately 2,300 people each year.”
“How many patients are being helped by the investment of £40 million in waiting lists, and does the Minister feel that the work of the expert panel will result in more timely access to procedures and appointments?”
“When receiving evidence from the Department, it was pointed that it had consulted quite widely on the issue. Certainly, the CBI and Federation of Small Businesses were in support of two years. On balance, because of that evidence, I tend to support that amendment. <BR /> <BR />Amendment No 15 is on zero-hours contracts. I believe that that amendment would do untold damage to those who want to work flexible hours and the number of hours. It would do untold damage to the hospitality industry and to nurses because the employer requires flexibility be able to bring in staff when needed for those jobs. I think that it is a badly worded amendment, and I will not support it.”
“Of the group 2 amendments, I will support amendment Nos 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16 and 17. <BR /> <BR />Amendment No 10 will not be moved, but it would have allowed for information to be published by employers on differences and pay gaps between women and men and for employers to give reasons for that. That would have made sure that all employers had to give reasons why, and, if they had not adhered to that, they could potentially be fined. I understand that the Member will not move that amendment and will work with the Minister and the Department. We might see that at a later stage as the Bill progresses. <BR /> <BR />Amendment No 14, which is Mr McCrea's, would basically allow anyone to take an appeal after one year and extend it to a two-year period.”
“<BR /> <BR />On amendment No 4, which is basically the same, the Committee was briefed by officials, who explained that there was no need for the amendment as draft affirmative procedure would be used for regulations. As with amendment No 1 — I have to repeat myself, unfortunately — this amendment would basically allow multiple appeals, which have the potential to be bogus, and would allow appeals to go ahead without the appellant having to pay for them after the initial appeal. It could be costly to the Department and very time-consuming. The amendment is ill thought-out.”