Sandra Overend
Mid Ulster · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“My thoughts are with the Black family, who have been put into the public eye once again due to the failings of the judicial system, the very system in which David served so faithfully.”
“On this, the last day the Assembly will meet in this place, I thank my colleague Mr Doug Beattie for proposing this important motion. I express my deep concern and share the anger of many people from my constituency of Mid Ulster at the management of the bail conditions for the man who was charged with offences linked to the terrorist mur…”
“<BR /> <BR />There is an argument that suspects have an entitlement to bail due to the length of time that they spend on remand. However, the answer to that must be to speed up the process of administering justice and not to grant bail in such cases.”
“It emerged that, having failed to sign in with police on 18 November, it was not until 23 December when police called at his bail address that they found the flat had been cleared out, and, in fact, evidence suggested he had been gone a few weeks by that stage.”
“To allow this type of situation to occur once could be seen as being careless. For it to happen twice in the same year is clear evidence of a culture that needs to change and of a policy that needs to change. Bail is seemingly too easily given out and not stringently enough managed.”
“I thank the Minister for that. I wonder whether he is optimistic that he will deliver that programme in the days that remain, given the fact that clubs have been waiting since last March, when the consultation process ended. An announcement was promised before Christmas. How confident is he that there will be something for local clubs?”
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“The Ulster Unionist Party supports our local Northern Ireland hauliers, who are, until this levy is enforced, operating at a disadvantage. <BR /> <BR />These statutory rules give the Department of the Environment the powers to enforce the levy and the associated penalty. We are mindful that this levy will have a greater impact here in Northern Ireland than in the rest of the UK, given the unique position of Northern Ireland in having the only land border with a foreign country. We are also keen to ensure that the levy is not passed directly on to consumers, but early indications show that that has not been the case. At least I understand that the vehicle excise duty has been reduced at the same time as the levy was introduced and that both are paid at the same time in one transaction.”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate and on behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party to oppose the prayers of annulment proposed by Sinn Féin Members. As my colleague Tom Elliott, who was on the Environment Committee before me, said at the time, the heavy goods vehicle levy will:”
“I thank the Minister for his response. Given that the South West College delivers higher education locally to 1,600 students in partnership with Queen's University, does he anticipate that such further education colleges might be given the resources to increase their capability in the face of cuts to university places in order to maintain and improve the skill set of people in Northern Ireland?”
“The five education and library boards have been effectively run down for months, if not years. Will the Minister confirm whether any of the five education and library boards are projecting a financial deficit for the 2014-15 financial year? Will the new single Education Authority be saddled with historical debt at its inception?”
“I welcome the opportunity to question the Education Minister on the report, although the time that we had before coming to the House this morning was not really enough to digest it in full. I, like others, would like to hear some costings of the proposals. Can the Minister outline something basic? What is the funding per pupil that will be provided at an Irish language post-primary school compared with what is provided to children at other schools? If this is their native language, the amount should be the same and the education outcomes should be comparable.”
“I note that the Minister refers to teacher mobility. Surely one of the biggest obstacles to teacher mobility, even in Northern Ireland, is that non-Catholic teachers cannot obtain employment in Catholic maintained primary schools because of the religious certificate obstacle. Did the Ministers discuss that issue? Can the Minister tell us what the situation is in the Republic of Ireland? When will we see some positive change on the issue?”
“That is unbelievable. I was stating a fact. There were a number of members called before me, and so a number of questions had been covered. I did not say that all of them had been covered. That is rather petty.”
“It has already been said that the Bill is short, but it is no less significant. The Ulster Unionist Party will table amendments and looks forward to the Minister's response.”
“Will consideration be given to the establishment of other sectoral bodies? No real figures are stated on the savings to be made with the establishment of the authority and to the cost of its establishment. I hope that the Minister can provide detail on that. <BR /> <BR />From the outset, the Ulster Unionist Party has accepted the need to streamline the administration of our education system, with the inevitable savings being passed on to the front line. It is, therefore, unfortunate that the Bill is not being awarded appropriate time for debate and scrutiny. It is crucial that the Bill is reflective of the opinions expressed by stakeholders. Mr Deputy Speaker, it seems that the Education Minister feels that the beauty of the Bill is in its shortness and simplicity, but you and I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”
“I hope that the Minister will comment on any such further provisions relating to the Bill. <BR /> <BR />As I said, I am very concerned about the lack of consultation. Anyone whom I have spoken to in recent days at primary or post-primary level is unaware that the legislation is being moved through the Assembly at the moment, and it is unfortunate that there is no opportunity to debate options and the merits of each. I was also amazed to read that the Department believes that there is no need for an equality impact assessment. Surely such an authority should undergo such scrutiny. <BR /> <BR />In conclusion, questions remain unanswered. The Minister mentioned in Committee that a body would be set up to represent the concerns of the controlled sector, yet there is no mention of that in the Bill.”
“Not just at the moment, thank you. <BR /> <BR />The clause continues:”
“That has been mentioned by Members who have spoken, and I welcome that fact. <BR /> <BR />As Mr Lunn said earlier, the Bill is short and simple; he also said that it was not worth fighting for. My colleague Mr Elliott raised a very valid point in the earlier debate today. I would welcome clarification from the Minister on that. Is the Bill a stepping stone to further legislation to reform the education system in Northern Ireland? <BR /> <BR />I tried to say something earlier and am raising it maybe more appropriately now. Clause 4(3) states:”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. The reason why I want this to go to Committee and through proper consultation is so that all these discussions can be had. The Member and his party have voted against letting the Bill go to that stage. <BR /> <BR />I will proceed. Will the Minister inform us whether he gave consideration to the Drumragh judgement when drafting the Bill and how he has incorporated that view? We know from recent 'Belfast Telegraph' surveys that the majority of people in Northern Ireland want some form of shared education, yet I see no means of furthering that aim in the Bill. Furthermore, we in the Ulster Unionist Party have serious reservations about the appointment of the chair of the authority. We would prefer that he or she be appointed by the members of the board.”
“Not at the minute, thank you. I challenge the Minister. Conversations are two-way things. Have you spoken to the sector? Maybe the Minister will inform us —”
“I will let my colleague answer that, because I certainly believe that the sector has been talking to him. The conversation —”
“<BR /> <BR />Numerous types of people could be granted one of the four Northern Ireland community places. They could come from the voluntary grammars, others, the integrated sector or trade union backgrounds. Equally, they could be someone who previously worked in the controlled or Catholic maintained sector. What I am saying is this: there could be sectors of our education system that have no input whatsoever to the running of the authority.”
“I will proceed, if the Member is content. The Bill proposes the abolition of the five education and library boards and the formation of one Education Authority, with a board consisting of eight political members, four representatives from the controlled sector, three from the CCMS and four from the community at large in Northern Ireland. There was an opportunity here to ensure that all sectors in the current education make-up in Northern Ireland were represented on the body. We are disappointed that such sectors as the integrated and voluntary grammar school sectors have no input into the authority. The Minister may say that those sectors could have a place, but, in reality, they have no right to a place and may never sit on the authority.”
“I take offence at that. I have written my own speech, thank you very much, Mr Storey. To be honest, I asked the question; you answer it.”
“The Education Minister appeared before the Committee two weeks ago and gave a pre-introductory briefing to the Bill. At this stage, I feel that a lot of questions remain unanswered.”
“Maybe there was another back-room deal, Mr Deputy Speaker.”
“<BR /> <BR />The argument has been put forward that the end of the current district council boundaries and the mandate of some council nominees on education and library boards has necessitated the establishment of a single Education Authority to become operational on 1 April next year. It is argued that this deadline cannot be made with the normal Assembly scrutiny and that accelerated passage is therefore needed. However, I strongly feel that we need answers from the Minister with regard to alternative options. Two are mentioned in the explanatory notes to the Bill, but there may be others that we have not had the opportunity to discuss. While I and my party believe that there was an alternative to rushing through imperfect legislation, it seems that others are content with such action by the Education Minister.”
“One is tempted to conclude that the impetus to short-circuit the normal legislative process by skipping the Committee Stage with a standard consultation with educationalists and others is an attempt to stop a proper post-mortem of the Education and Skills Authority. ESA was a Programme for Government commitment. At the last time of checking, the cost of the Education and Skills Authority implementation team from 2005 to the end of March 2014 was over £18 million. Given the current budgetary shambles, that must be a complete embarrassment for the current Education Minister.”
“<BR /> <BR />I am a new member of the Education Committee, and my first obvious question for the current Minister is this: what happened to the previous two Bills? They seem to have disappeared into the ether after Committee Stage. The Ulster Unionist Party took a negative view of both Bills, but we did not oppose just for the sake of it. We wanted to shape and improve the Bills to meet the objective of a streamlined, fit-for-purpose administrative support body for all schools. That opportunity was shot down. <BR /> <BR />There have been rumours of behind-the-scenes talks to placate various interest groups. However, while the Assembly waited patiently for the Minister to bring the legislation back to the Floor, the ESA Bill has been quietly buried.”
“The Bill also made provisions for the dissolution of CCMS and the transfer of certain duties, functions, assets, liabilities and staff to ESA. It passed its Committee Stage on 30 September 2009, some 11 months later. <BR /> <BR />The second time around, the Education Bill was introduced to the Assembly on 2 October 2012. That Bill had 69 clauses and eight schedules. The Bill was to set up ESA and replace eight existing organisations, namely the education and library boards, the Staff Commission for Education and Library Boards, the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools and the Youth Council for Northern Ireland. It passed its Committee Stage on 8 April 2013, some six months later.”
“When considering the new Education Bill, it is worthwhile pausing for a moment to reflect on what happened to the previous attempts to reorganise education administration in Northern Ireland, namely the Education Bill introduced by Minister Ruane in 2008 and the subsequent Bill introduced by Minister O'Dowd in 2012. <BR /> <BR />The first Education Bill was introduced to the Assembly on 25 November 2008 and had 55 clauses and eight schedules. The Bill was to make provision for the dissolution of existing organisations and the transfer of duties, functions, assets, liabilities and staff from those organisations to ESA. Those organisations were the education and library boards, CCEA, the Staff Commission for Education and Library Boards and the Youth Council for Northern Ireland.”
“Sorry, Mr Principal Deputy Speaker. If we are looking for accelerated passage, that is one of the reasons why we —”
“Clause 4(6) states that such an order would be subject to negative resolution, which means that it would not come before the Committee for agreement. So I am asking the Minister —”
“The Minister is very kind. I refer him to clause 4(3), which states:”
“I note the good intentions behind the Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, especially to cut the number of young fatalities, but does the Minister accept that what works well in urban areas may not work as well in rural areas? Will the Minister give a commitment that he will listen to the concerns of rural communities about the Bill?”
“Has the Minister made any assessment as to how those changes in Bombardier will affect other businesses across Northern Ireland who support Bombardier in the aerospace industry?”
“Why should those who suffered most during the Troubles be asked to pay the price during a time of peace? Surely the needs of innocent victims should be prioritised as a matter of course; they should not find their funding cut or completely removed.”
“To have these groups virtually begging for funding is nothing short of a disgrace, especially when one considers that many ex-prisoners' groups, which played the central role in creating victims, seem to be able to access large amounts of funding with relative ease. Indeed, the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone talked about the increasing funding for victim support in comparison with direct rule government times. Seriously, does she not recognise that, instead, a huge amount of money was spent rebuilding Northern Ireland after the long and horrific terrorist campaign by her colleagues in the IRA? <BR /> <BR />The brave men and women of the security forces who put their own lives and those of their families at risk in countering the terrorist threat over many years have been treated with a lack of dignity and respect by OFMDFM.”
“I have met members of the group on a number of occasions and have heard at first hand the difficulties that they face on a daily basis just to keep going. They face cuts only months into their first full year of operation. Faced with those cuts, groups such as MUVE will be unable to continue to provide their much-needed services to vulnerable people in Mid Ulster, leaving them to face an uncertain future with potentially devastating consequences for their care. <BR /> <BR />These groups are already feeling the squeeze, with one group telling me that it felt as if it was facing death by a thousand cuts, as funding is picked apart and withdrawn, bit by bit.”
“It is clear that victims and survivors need specialised care and counselling to deal with these traumatic issues, especially as many of them still feel extremely vulnerable. Local victims' organisations provide life-saving services to former members of the security forces, their families and other victims of terrorist violence. The removal of funding from these organisations is having a devastating impact on the individual victims. As has already been said, the cuts are compromising the future status of victims' organisations and their ability to continue to provide vital services. The Mid-Ulster Victims Empowerment (MUVE) project is one such group that is taking up the challenge in Mid Ulster and is providing care in ever more challenging circumstances to the most vulnerable local victims and survivors and their families.”
“These are traumas that should never be faced by any person, and because the injuries and bereavements have such a sinister cause they fall on the shoulders of victims and survivors with a heavier weight.”
“<BR /> <BR />In recent years, we have seen significant anniversaries for the Teebane massacre, when eight people were killed and six were left seriously injured, and the murders that took place in Coagh, where three men were murdered in cold blood by IRA terrorists. A long time has passed since those and other terrible atrocities took place, but the grief and pain is still felt by the victims and survivors and their families, especially when one considers that many of those murders have gone unsolved. Indeed, it seems that the terrorist campaign is not long over in Mid Ulster, and we remember the family of the late David Black, who, just over two years ago, was murdered on his way to work in the Prison Service.”
“I am grateful for the opportunity to participate in the debate and support the motion proposed by my party leader, Mike Nesbitt. <BR /> <BR />There are few places in Northern Ireland where the Troubles did not visit and where its effects are not still being felt. Indeed, the constituency that I represent — Mid Ulster — was particularly badly hit by the despicable terrorist campaign. Therefore, it is home to many people who feel the acute effects of that terrible time. Murders were committed by terrorists in virtually every town and village, almost without exception. If I were to list them now, we would be here for a very long time.”
“— other emerging technologies should be part of our energy mix in the future.”
“— and we should not put all our eggs in one basket. Necessity is the mother of invention and —”
“<BR /> <BR />The policy of the Ulster Unionist Party on energy is that we need to diversify our supply. Onshore wind is not the only option when it comes to renewable energy —”
“However, both projects are apparently on hold due to a lack of financial and regulatory support. Perhaps the Minister will clarify the attitude of the Department in her summing up. <BR /> <BR />There have been studies, reports and consultation documents, but still, as it stands, no projects have been forthcoming. However, a word of caution: in the strategic energy framework document, the Department estimated that the combined cost of renewable electricity installations together with the cost of the grid investment necessary to meet the 40% target could be between £49 and £83 per household on an annual basis at current prices. When we talk of government grants and incentives for renewable energy schemes, we should not forget that it is the consumer and taxpayer who end up paying through their energy bills.”
“That study was supplemented by a 2008 report commissioned by Action Renewables, which sought to determine where deep geothermal schemes may be viable by assessing potential heat demand and geothermal conditions. Six towns have been identified as having the appropriate geothermal conditions and the necessary heat demand: Ballycastle, Bushmills, Ballymoney, Ballymena, Larne and Antrim. I hope that the Minister will tell us the latest situation regarding the potential for exploiting the potential of geothermal. I am sure that the residents of the six towns just mentioned will be very interested indeed. <BR /> <BR />On 1 July this year, the all-party group on renewable energy received a presentation from GT Energy. The presentation mentioned Ballymena and Antrim and associated feasibility studies.”
“Studies have been carried out on the geothermal potential in Northern Ireland, with a number of towns identified as having the conditions to be potentially suitable for deep geothermal heating networks. Previous studies have examined the potential geothermal resource in Northern Ireland. In 2005, a study that used both measurements from existing bore holes and model geothermal temperature maps identified areas where deep geothermal heating schemes could be possible. Temperatures of around 90° Celsius were measured at a depth of 2,300 metres in the Rathlin Bay area on the north coast, and higher temperatures of up to 165° Celsius were modelled at 5,000-metre depths in other areas.”
“All parties on the Executive signed up to the ambitious target in the Programme for Government to achieve that target. I believe that we are on about 14% at present. It is not just about creating security of energy supply and literally keeping the lights on; it is also about adapting to and militating against the harmful effects of climate change for future generations. The document states:”
“Deep geothermal plants work by pumping water down to rocks about 5 kilometres below the surface that are at high temperatures of around 200° centigrade. Once there, most of the water turns to steam and is then pumped back up and converted into geothermal electricity using a steam turbine. When cooled, the water can also be reused to produce more geothermal energy on demand, with — it is claimed by green energy enthusiasts — the potential to deliver one third of the UK's heat demand, if heat networks were installed. <BR /> <BR />The strategic energy framework of 2010 states:”
“I support the motion. The general public might be somewhat bemused that the Assembly, in the grip of a budgetary crisis that, if not resolved, could result in the collapse of institutions, is clearly debating a take-note motion. That said, in Northern Ireland, energy, particularly the price of energy, is one of the most important issues out there. At the very least, at the end of this debate, the Members present will be better informed about one of the technologies that could help solve our energy challenges and help meet our renewable targets. <BR /> <BR />Deep geothermal energy is an emerging renewable energy technology that has the potential to help reduce our over-reliance on imported fossil fuels.”
“I thank the Minister for that. Given the excellent competition in Cookstown and the fact that the Open Championship is to be held in Royal Portrush very shortly, what is the Minister doing to work with the ETI Minister to encourage more sporting events to come to Northern Ireland?”
“As the Executive have rightly put the economy at the heart of their activities, what plans are in place to help local businesses, especially small businesses, that will lose out on National Insurance breaks when the childcare voucher scheme is done away with next autumn?”
“I thank the Minister for her response so far. Will she now at least give a commitment to speak to her colleague the Sinn Féin Education Minister with regard to the possibility of the Department rural proofing decisions on the future of rural schools, just as Scotland does, before he shuts any more?”
“Following the Scottish referendum, has the Minister had any conversations with his counterpart in Scotland about support for students from Northern Ireland who travel to Scotland for undergraduate study?”