Jim Allister
North Antrim · Traditional Unionist Voice · Northern Ireland
“<BR /> <BR />Last week, a 'News Letter' editorial rightly drew attention to the fact that there is a chorus of demand that it is up to the British Government to pay for that, but no pressure whatsoever on the GAA — the primary beneficiary — which still persists that its contribution will be a miserly £15 million.”
“Public money, we are constantly told, is in short supply and scarce. I am sure that it is, and will continue to be so. Yet, while many in the House pay lip service to the need to prioritise health, there seems to be a majority here who would prioritise public spending on a sporting facility, namely Casement Park.”
“That editorial stated that the DUP "should make clear" its view on the Casement Park costs. Yet, yesterday, we had the launch of the DUP manifesto and not a mention of Casement Park. We have a Minister — Minister Lyons — who has ruled out clawback for non-GAA use of that stadium.”
“Therefore, the Minister comes to the House with a proposal that, effectively, has been written in Brussels, because it tells us how much we can give to our fishing industry in Northern Ireland.”
“The Minister told us that this is a scheme under the Fisheries Act, which it is, whereby all the devolved regions and England and Wales can make their own provision.”
“Rather than removing the green lane, the introduction of the new customs border arrangements will further advance the development of the green lane, thereby helping to make the Irish Sea border and our alienation from the rest of the UK more firmly established.”
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“Before commenting on these joyous matters, I add my voice of condolence on the human loss south of the border at the weekend — 10 lives, including many children — and the loss of the garda officer. <BR /> <BR />Turning to this matter, it is a joyous occasion, and one that does not come along very often. We simply want to say to the members of the management and team of the Northern Ireland football squad, "You have done us all proud." Who would have thought that little Northern Ireland would not just qualify but would come top of their group? <BR /> <BR />I think the level of pride that most of us felt was immense. I think of my constituency, particularly given the role of captain fantastic, Steven Davis. What do I say? He was born and reared in Cullybackey, and that small town is bursting with pride and joy at the achievement.”
“The sometimes Minister knows of the problem and its ramifications and yet, plugging the gap that obviously exists is not a priority. In particular — for someone who represents an area covered by the Northern Trust— it is a priority to bring some equality of opportunity to that area, and others that are affected, to make sure that there are enough trained clinicians to diagnose, because that is the starting point for the treatment of any of these children.”
“he goes on to finish the answer by saying that”
“<BR /> <BR />What perhaps distressed me most about the answer from the sometime Minister is that, having acknowledged the dearth of clinicians and said in the answer that,”
“The Member may well be right, but one thing is very clear. When you examine the figures for people who, for example, seek a statement in respect of educational needs, you find that the success rate for those who come with referral from the medical experts — the clinicians — is far greater than for those who come with a referral simply from the school. It is quite clear that you need the support of a clinician to give your child in the best possible chance of obtaining a statement. If there is a dearth of clinicians, then you are waiting longer to get to that point. Maybe a whole school year could be lost for that child which, at that tender age, is a vital component in the ability of that child to catch up and perform to the optimum of their potential.”
“<BR /> <BR />I was amazed to discover, in this answer from Mr Hamilton, that, although the Northern is the largest health and social care trust in Northern Ireland, it has only 11 of the total of 68 clinicians trained to diagnose autism, whereas the Southern Trust has 23. A third of the total number of clinicians are in the Southern Trust but, in Belfast, there are only 11, in the Northern,11, in the South Eastern, only nine, and in the Western, only 14. Without equality of distribution of clinicians to diagnose autism, the postcode lottery kicks in. That is why, in the northern area — relating this to education — when the North Eastern Education and Library Board existed, it advised me that, in the year 2012-13 for example, there was a total of 456 requests for statements in respect of those who were believed to be suffering from autism.”
“The tragedy is that, in years gone by, many of those kids, who, with the right treatment and support, can do quite well, and the same goes for kids with dyslexia, were simply written off as stupid, which was neither fair then nor fair now. That which can be done we most certainly need to do. <BR /> <BR />The primary point that I want to make in the debate is the great disparity in facilities across the Province. There is something of a postcode lottery because I asked the sometimes Health Minister some questions about autism, and we talked this morning about the scandalous delays that some 900 people are waiting beyond the promised 13 weeks, and some have been waiting for a year. A contributor to that is to establish where the clinicians are located who can deal with those referrals.”
“I commend the sponsors of the motion for bringing this important subject to the House, and I compliment Mr Bradley on his work in leading the all-party group on autism. This is an issue that many of us, as constituency Members, are discovering is a far more deep-seated and widespread issue than we had ever realised. In my five years running a constituency office as a Member of this House, I have noticed an increasing volume of parents disaffected by the treatment or lack of assistance that they have been getting in the education system and, indeed, in the health system, in respect of kids on the very wide spectrum of autism, which is excessively wide indeed.”
“Would it not be better, Minister, to go a step beyond accessibility and ensure that the certificate in Catholic religious education was removed from being applicable to non-religious subjects? There is no Catholic mathematics or Catholic geography. Why do we need a Catholic certificate in education to teach those subjects?”
“Could the Minister update us on the position of chief executive of Sport NI? There is presently an acting chief executive. Is that situation to continue, or is there a recruitment process? Are there outstanding matters to be attended to in respect of the former chief executive?”
“— and operate here. Will the Minister not address that inequity and allow those athletes to express their Britishness, which they are supposed to be able to do?”
“— for them to compete for Team GB if they want to be affiliated —”
“I note that, not for the first time, the Minister dodges the question. She refers to, for example, rowers being able to compete for Team GB, but that is only if they be affiliated and live and operate on the UK mainland. If they want to compete as an athlete from here, the Minister continues to barricade their route, and there is no pathway —”
“Does the deputy First Minister agree that that would be an effective assault on the North/South bodies?”
“— has to approve all the grants to the North/South bodies.”
“So, the deputy First Minister tells us that the operations of the North/South bodies continue apace. Can I take it from that that the funding streams are continuing? If the deputy First Minister's colleague the Acting First Minister and self-styled gatekeeper wanted to strike a real blow against the North/South bodies, of course she could turn off the funding tap, in that, for 2016, she as Finance Minister —”
“There are many laudable aspirations in this document, but can I suggest a more tangible impact to the Minister? Invest NI issues letters of offer to those that it supports, yet it has resisted the suggestion that I made to it two years ago to insert in those letters of offer an obligation to employ a certain percentage of people from the disabled community within in the workforce of those that Invest NI supports. Why has that idea, which would be tangible and effective, not been pursued?”
“Since the retirement of the chief coroner was well known in advance and flagged for some time, why did it take until September for the recruitment process to begin? Why were several months lost in that process?”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Is it in order for the Minister to mislead the House by suggesting that I have spoken in the debate and made an inadequate contribution when I have not spoken in the debate at all? He is the one running away from a simple intervention.”
“Does the Member have any concerns about reports about the activity of lobbyists in respect of some major renewable energy companies that are active in Northern Ireland and about whether such lobbyists are having undue influence on departmental policy?”
“Is it not enlightening that, on a day when a petition is presented opposing the constant pandering to convicted criminals, which the Minister upholds and which tramples on the rights of innocent victims, the Minister chooses to come to the House to make a statement that has no mention of victims but is prisoner-centred? Is it not time the Minister realised that he is the Minister of Justice, not a social worker?”
“It is the chronicles of NAMA that I am concerned about.”
“On what basis did the Finance Minister back in January 2014 advise NAMA that the First Minister and the deputy First Minister were both fully engaged with the PIMCO bid? What did that mean? Given the role of her Department in the appointment of Frank Cushnahan to NAMA's Northern Ireland advisory committee, is it part of her anxiety to stay in office and act as a self-professed gatekeeper that she can protect the chronicles of NAMA from vigorous scrutiny?”
“This is patently a controversial and cross-cutting issue, given the Department of Agriculture's interest. Did the Minister take the decision to the Executive, and has he got Executive approval? Has he not, in fact, created an untenable conundrum whereby he acquiesces in the feeding of our livestock with imported GM product but rejects the cultivation of GM-approved products which have passed through the entire sifting process of the EU?”
“Instead, we have this pitiful stunt, as a decoy, to divert attention away from the fact that it is not facing up to the issue and will not face up to the issue.”
“How many times does this system have to crash before people realise that it is unworkable and unfixable and before they face up to the reality that sticking plasters cannot go on being applied to a system that is incapable of being repaired? It is time that we addressed the issue of getting proper democratic structures in the House, based on a voluntary coalition and a proper opposition, rather than the constant failure of what we have. <BR /> <BR />As I say, when the first fig leaf comes along, the Minister will be back, because that is the consequence of the DUP being unable to face the reality that it should be facing; namely, that the inextricable link is there and that the consequences need to be faced.”
“Whether he is being paid or not, I do not know. Whether coming back every seven days keeps his pension rights intact and whether the special advisers are reappointed every seven days to keep their continuity of service in place, I do not know. I think that the public are entitled to know those things, but, of course, they are concealed from the House. I am absolutely sure, however, that the DUP will be back, because it does not have the bottle to take on the issue that is staring it in the face and prefers to sweep murder under the carpet.”
“I will answer very briefly: that was another face-saving exercise on the part of that party. <BR /> <BR />Today we are in the situation where we do not have a Minister.”
“That would have been the consequence of the First Minister resigning, but he did not resign, because he did not want to tip Sinn Féin out of government and he was scared of an election. The DUP has been running away from an election ever since. That is why they came up with this stunt of pretending that it is not business as usual and that they are really taking the battle to Sinn Féin, when they have run away from the battle in respect of the core issue. It is, as I say, nothing short of a stunt.”
“That is a matter for your judgement, but I think I am right on message in that I am explaining why the DUP Minister is not today in post. <BR /> <BR />A response was required. The Ulster Unionist Party, having taken the right and honourable step of departing from government with those so linked, had outmanoeuvred the DUP. Therefore, they had to think up some other stratagem to create the appearance that it was not business as usual and that they were really taking things on and taking on Sinn Féin on the issue. Of course, the real issue was the presence of Sinn Féin in government. By deploying the stunt they deployed, they guaranteed and secured Sinn Féin in government, as opposed to the logical step that had been taken by another of tipping Sinn Féin out of government by resigning.”
“Let me assure the House that the Health Minister and all his DUP colleagues will be back. The first fig leaf that comes along will be grasped to get them back into the House. The DUP is a party addicted to power, and the lure of office is irresistible. Of course, what we are witnessing is but a stunt: a stunt to buy time and a stunt to save face. When the IRA brought murder back to our streets, a response was necessary because Mrs Foster told us that Sinn Féin were inextricably linked to the IRA and therefore the DUP had to respond. They had been outmanoeuvred —”
“That is our obligation as a devolved part of the United Kingdom, and I am sure that we will meet it handsomely. However, it is not for the Assembly, which does not have control over these matters, to set artificial aspirations or to say that we will do things that we know we cannot do. Our obligation is to live within the responsibilities that our nation meets and for our nation to meet its responsibilities. In that way, we approach the thing properly.”
“So, I think that there is an obligation on the adjacent Arab states that has not been fully and adequately met. <BR /> <BR />I think that, before we berate our own Government about these matters, we need to recognise the scale of the contribution they have made, which is now approaching and soon to surpass £1 billion. The motion derides that, with no criticism of other countries in Europe. If we take the example of some of the major countries in Europe, such as France, we see that it has contributed £70 million in humanitarian aid, as opposed to the £1 billion of the United Kingdom. So, I reject the notion that the United Kingdom has not lived up to that responsibility. <BR /> <BR />What is our responsibility in that context? Our responsibility is to take our share of whatever the United Kingdom properly admits as a refugee quota.”
“<BR /> <BR />I also think the motion is a little unfair to the United Kingdom Government, because it berates the Government for not acting in line with their humanitarian obligations. The United Kingdom Government in the last four years have contributed more than any other European state in humanitarian aid — £920 million. In fact, and I think that this is a point worth making, that is considerably more than many of the neighbouring Arab states in the Middle East, which have contributed paltry amounts in comparison with their wealth. If you take the United Arab Emirates, you see that it has one of the highest GDPs in the world. The United Kingdom has contributed three times what the United Arab Emirates has contributed and almost three times what Saudi Arabia has contributed.”
“Thank you. <BR /> <BR />I take the point, but you, and Europe as a whole, cannot give carte blanche. Given all the risks that come to Europe's security, with the possibility of some of those under the cloak of the crowd of refugees being jihadists who come to destroy, not to build, their lives or anyone else's, I think that Europe has to be careful and to approach this thing sensibly. <BR /> <BR />What I see is a great thrust of people who are determined that they are getting to Germany. That is fine. People may have that aspiration, but is that the first priority of a refugee or is safety the first priority of a refugee? I think that one has to be careful about some of those matters.”
“This is such an emotive subject that, if you dare to ask questions that in other circumstances would be objective and reasonable, you run the risk of being vilified for daring to raise those subjects and being painted as someone who is, in fact, heartless. However, with the spectacle that we are witnessing across Europe, there are questions that have to be asked: are all those whom we see on our screens truly refugees? There seems to be a great preponderance of young men, which perhaps speaks more of economic migration. I think that we need to distinguish the necessity for our humanitarian response from a genuine refugee situation, which, in international law, is met in the country where the refugee first arrives.”
“I begin by congratulating Mr Allen on his maiden speech. Some of those who spoke subsequent to him have obviously forgotten the tradition of congratulating a person on their maiden speech. I do that genuinely. I wish him well, and I look forward to his further contributions. <BR /> <BR />One would have to be utterly heartless not to be struck and very moved by the sheer devastation that we have seen in Syria. It is a country that has been bombed to a pulp by the various factions, and it is no surprise that, in consequence of that, there is a migration of refugees. We should approach their plight with considerable sympathy, and not just sympathy but by stretching ourselves in terms of material and other support.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Can the House be advised whether these 10-minute Ministers are being remunerated and whether, by the recycling of their resignations every seven days, they are maintaining their continuity of service for pension purposes?”
“Further to that point of order, can you give some clarification on the capacity of Departments to throw back questions that are tabled to the Business Office because they do not like them and say, "We're not going to answer that"? How have we reached the pass where that is even possible? The question is patently within the remit of the Department, but, because it is too embarrassing or awkward for it to answer, it simply tells the Business Office, "We're not answering". What sort of way is that to do business?”
“How can the Minister talk about an improvement in the lot of victims when one of the parties with responsibility for victims is, in her words, "inextricably linked" to an organisation that is still in the business of victim making?”
“— this flamboyant, expansive notion that the abolition of milk quotas and everything else feeds into. Then, when the crisis comes, they want to pass the parcel. This parcel of responsibility rests primarily in Brussels.”
“In protecting the producers that we have, we have to adopt policies that are not just —”
“It has done nothing to revise the system to make that possible in the year that that has been approved from elsewhere. DARD, with DETI, puts its hand to 'Going for Growth', which is a fine document in many ways but one that seems to forget that the first priority surely is to protect the producers that we have.”
“In addition, it would not be a loss for the European Union because experience of intervention is that, when the market turns on foot of intervention, the people who make the money are the European Commission because it cashes in by selling, at a much higher price, the product that it bought in at an intervention price. It is beyond comprehension, for an agency that has control of our policy, why it is so resistant to helping the industry through this crisis. <BR /> <BR />Therefore, much of the blame and the responsibility needs to be put where it belongs: on the EU and our membership of it. Yes, DARD could do more. It has sat on its hands, for example, with the capacity for over a year to introduce the October single farm payments.”
“In the EU, we have a safety net, but it is one that has not been serviced since 2003 because there has been no upgrade in the level to make its impact significant and positive. By refusing to take that action, the Commission compounds the crisis. <BR /> <BR />Of course, intervention would do two things: it would provide an immediate bottom to the market, which is what it needs, but more than that and, long-term, more important than that, it would provide the trader confidence that is lost in the market on which growth and recovery would be built.”
“It was not farmers who decided the geopolitical path that Europe would tread; it was the faceless bureaucrats of Brussels, by and large, who took that path, and now it is the farmers of Europe who are left to pick up the pieces. <BR /> <BR />It would be remiss not to identify the fact that the European Union, being in control of our policy, has much of the responsibility for the current crisis. Therefore, when its response is to slam the door on the only short-term salvation for the dairy industry, namely an increase in intervention, it makes the situation so much the worse. Every major player in the dairy industry across the world has some mechanism akin to intervention. The United States of America has its margin protection policy, which is there as a safety net.”
“Of course, it is right that the Assembly should debate this important issue, but there needs to be recognition of the reality that, above all, our agriculture policy, courtesy of our membership of the EU, is set not by this House, not even by DEFRA, but by the unelected European Commission. It is the Commission that has steered the ship of European agriculture onto the rocks, as far as many of the aspects of this crisis are concerned. <BR /> <BR />Of course, it was the Commission that was determined not to be turned on the issue of the abolition of milk quotas, as someone else referred to. That, in part, has fuelled the crisis in our industry. It was the European Union that took the big geopolitical decisions that have aggravated the crisis in Russian imports.”
“Is that reflected in the business accounts that have been approved in respect of this North/South body?”
“I advise the Minister that, contrary to her statement, Shimna Integrated College is not in Ballymena; I think it is in Newcastle. I thought that the Minister might have known that, but there you are. <BR /> <BR />The Minister said that she was making the statement on behalf of herself and junior Minister McIlveen. Are we, therefore, to understand that, despite the statement about disrupting North/South business, the DUP is still endorsing statements on North/South business? <BR /> <BR />In relation to the accounts that, belatedly, for 2013 have been provided, do they reflect at all the finding in her Department's resource accounts for that year that there was illegal spend to the tune of £8 million by these North/South bodies under her wing because business cases had not been approved?”
“I think of a young child who wanted to attend Culcrow Primary School. He is the eldest child in his family, it is the nearest primary school, and there were no obvious means of getting anywhere else, yet he was refused because places were filled by students from much further afield, even though the school was not their nearest primary school. However, when the Department was asked to allow a single increase, which would have kept the composite class at only 28, the Minister refused. Why is there such a heartless attitude to young children in the system?”