Alastair Ross
East Antrim · Democratic Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“Over the weekend, she supported an independent investigation into everything that is going on in the RHI scheme. She has been working with the Economy Minister to try to make sure that we have something in place in early January to stop the costs of the scheme and reduce the cost.”
“There is no doubt that it has been an incredibly difficult time over the past two weeks for anyone involved in politics. It is quite clear that the public are, quite rightly, angry about a scheme that, with hindsight, was poorly designed and badly administered.”
“I know that, for some individuals, the old habit of asking questions rather than trying to answer them, dies hard, but what we had was not an opposition-driven policy or an attempt to hold the Executive to account; it was a media-driven thing, and some of the opposition parties tried to jump on the bandwagon.”
“Again, I hear the leader of the Alliance Party chirping away in the background. I listened to her contribution, and she must have had 10 or 11 questions she wanted answered.”
“That is why some of the hyperbole that has been around today is hard to stomach. <BR /> <BR />What we heard from my colleague Joanne Bunting was a thoughtful and considered first contribution to the Assembly, and I think that it was one that shows that she will be a valuable asset to the Chamber.”
“They abandoned their seats, and they failed to discharge their duties or ask the questions that their voters might, quite rightly, want them to ask. The public care very little about procedures, points of order or Standing Orders.”
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“I tend to agree with the Minister that what we want to see, ultimately, is a Department for the economy that would include some of the powers that his Department currently has. Will the Minister explain the benefits of seeing colleges and universities as economic drivers and how a Department for the economy would help, not only in the work that Invest Northern Ireland does to attract companies to invest in Northern Ireland but in training young people in economically relevant areas?”
“The Member has rightly outlined other sports in which Northern Ireland has a good track record. One in which we have many elite athletes yet cannot participate in Commonwealth Games is hockey, for which there is not a Northern Ireland team. Does he agree that the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee should look at the example that cricket has set? We are not looking at having a Northern Ireland team for all events but for those in which Northern Ireland could participate, such as the Commonwealth Youth Games. Does he agree that we should look at setting up a hockey team specifically for that event?”
“One of the advantages of being a small country is that we can be flexible. Indeed, when it comes to youth training, we saw that investor companies were able to work with universities and colleges on specially tailored courses to meet their needs. Earlier, I listened to the Minister say that the needs of employers will be paramount in this process to ensure that young people are trained in the areas that employers want, which will increase their opportunity to get employment once they have finished. How exactly will he ensure that that happens? What formal structures will be in place to ensure that employers work directly with those who deliver the training courses to ensure that young people are trained in the areas that businesses want them to be trained in?”
“Unlike the SDLP, I am glad that the Minister has faced up to the difficult economic realities that we face and been able to present a balanced Budget to the House today. I also think it is right that we have continued to support the facilitation of job creation. I think that is good news for people in Northern Ireland. What support will there be for small businesses, particularly through the rating system?”
“The Finance Minister has acknowledged that the loan from Treasury will not solve all of our problems, but he has rightly said that it will, at least, give breathing space to try to find agreement for next year's Budget. Of course, it is necessary because of the economic incompetence on display from Members opposite, which has been so amply displayed on various radio programmes over the past few days. What is the status of the £87 million and £114 million that was to be taken out of our Budget because of the failure to move forward on welfare reform?”
“— and to get young people off welfare and into work. <BR /> <BR />It is important that we note that Sinn Féin's actions and its hypocrisy today are hurting young people rather than helping them.”
“That will have an impact on his ability to pay hardship funds, to train young people, to get young people apprenticeships —”
“Sinn Féin claims that it wants to protect young people in hardship from financial pressures, but its actions are contributing to the financial pressures that those young people will face. Whether Sinn Féin likes it or not, refusing to have welfare reform implemented means that we will be fined by Treasury and will have to pay for a new computer system. That is money that would not need to be spent if Sinn Féin just agreed to the changes. <BR /> <BR />Anybody who listened to the Minister, when he came to the Employment and Leaning Committee, would have heard the very stark warning about budget cuts that are coming down the line. I asked the Minister about projected cuts for next year, and he talked about double-digit figures of cuts in his Department.”
“The failure of some parties to agree to welfare reform, even when a DUP Minister has secured the concessions he has and made us the envy of other regions across the United Kingdom, will have an impact on the budgets of every Department in this Assembly. That means that every motion that we talk about that requires any level of funding will be impacted on by Sinn Féin and the SDLP's refusal to agree to welfare reform. <BR /> <BR />Sinn Féin should not be allowed to get away from the hypocrisy of running straight to the Chamber and complaining about cuts when it, because of its actions, is contributing to cuts against those people in society whom it claims to represent.”
“So, much of that public money that was being given out to young people was not being used for educational purposes: it was not being used to keep them in education or to get them to their educational sites. Much of that money was being used on social activities and things like that. Whilst a good social life is undoubtedly important as a student, it should not be funded by the taxpayer. It is important that we ensure that any public money being given out is scrutinised and well targeted. That point has to be made. <BR /> <BR />The Chair of the Committee was reluctant to get down to the issue of welfare reform, but the reality is that we cannot debate any motion in this House in isolation to the discussion on welfare reform.”
“Whilst I acknowledge that some of the research conducted by NUS found that many students are worried about financial hardship, I would be surprised if they were not. I think that all of us are worried about financial hardship. That does not mean that they are going to drop out of the course immediately or that they would be prevented from doing it. A lot more work needs to go into identifying just how real those figures are. <BR /> <BR />I wish to make two points about the motion. First, we need to ensure that any public money given out for hardship funds is well targeted. If we learnt anything from the debate that we had on the education maintenance allowance (EMA), it is that we cannot afford to have a broad fund that is available to a broad range of students. When we investigated the EMA, we found that much of it is "dead money".”
“Had he investigated by asking the Department or the Minister about the true facts of the issue, he would have learnt that, rather than a £1·3 million cut, the Minister and his Department have, as the Deputy Chair said, increased funding for student hardship by about £0·8 million to £8 million over the last five years through the FE awards and the hardship funds. That is an important point to make. Perhaps it is a lesson to be learnt by Sinn Féin and other Members that they should probably try to identify an issue and ask questions before they run to the Chamber and put a motion down to try to make a political point. <BR /> <BR />As was outlined by Mr Lyttle and others, not a single application to the hardship fund has been rejected because of a lack of funds. That in itself tells a huge story.”
“The motion is a fairly innocuous one. I doubt that anybody could disagree with its sentiment. It goes without saying that funding for student support should be prioritised for those in greatest need. There is a greater story behind the changing of the wording of the motion that was originally submitted by Sinn Féin. Mr Flanagan was in a rush to leave the Chamber after giving his initial speech. If he had not been in such a big rush to make a political point by putting a motion down before he actually learnt of the facts of the issue, perhaps Sinn Féin would not be in as an embarrassing situation as it is in today.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. I acknowledge the point that he makes about 50% of students considering leaving their course, but the real statistic that we need to know is how many of those actually left their course. I imagine that a lot of young people — in fact, most people in today's society — will worry about financial hardship. Surely we need to know how many of them actually left their course because of financial hardship rather than how many considered it.”