David Ford
South Antrim · Alliance Party · Northern Ireland
“All I can say is that I remember officials coming back into the Department and saying, "You wouldn't have been very pleased with what Trevor or Stewart said at the Committee yesterday, Minister".”
“<BR /> <BR />When I listened to the start of the debate, I welcomed the comments that Mr McGuigan made, but, as Alex Attwood said so forcibly, even when he intervened and asked what had changed, there was an inability on the part of the Sinn Féin representative to explain anything other than to say that there is an election in six weeks'…”
“<BR /> <BR />No doubt, what we saw from in/out Ministers not so long ago and the failure of the outgoing First Minister to accept her role when she was Minister in DETI to deal with the issue has further added to that.”
“There is an inability in all that we face at the moment to recognise the public disgust at the behaviour of certain people in this place and, most particularly, in the Executive.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In his question to the Minister on that statement, Mr Paul Girvan suggested that some judges spin out cases inappropriately in their own financial interests.”
“Less than the full truth emerged and facts were eventually slowly dragged out from the bunker, sorry, from Stormont Castle. It is a classic example of why people have lost trust in the way that this place operates; it is a classic example of why the ministerial code needs to be enforced at least as rigorously as we enforce procedures agai…”
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“<BR /> <BR />The PSNI has made strides on the development of a potential information-sharing agreement with an Garda Síochána covering domestic and child abuse, and this work will be further developed during 2014-15 in the registered offenders project advisory group. <BR /> <BR />Those are just some of the examples that demonstrate the excellent ongoing cooperation between criminal justice agencies across both jurisdictions on this island. <BR /> <BR />I have attached to the printed version of the statement a copy of the joint work programme for 2014-15 agreed during the meeting. The current joint work programme seeks to build on the 2013-14 programme and on the progress made last year.”
“<BR /> <BR />The meeting provided us both with an opportunity to review final progress against the 2013-14 joint work programme as well as to formally agree a joint work programme for 2014-15, which will run through to the summer of 2015. It was gratifying to note the positive progress that has been made. <BR /> <BR />A hate crime-related seminar held in Sligo during May, which was hosted by an Garda Síochána and attended by the PSNI, was the result of the outworking of the criminal justice and social diversity project advisory group. <BR /> <BR />The sharing of information and training on programmes to challenge offending behaviour between the respective probation services, including exploration of opportunities for collaboration in interventions for domestic violence and violent offenders, are further instances of progress.”
“With your permission, Mr Principal Deputy Speaker, I wish to make a statement regarding a meeting under the auspices of the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) on cooperation on criminal justice matters, which was held in Dublin on Friday 27 June. I represented the Executive at the meeting, which was hosted by Frances Fitzgerald TD, the new Minister for Justice and Equality, who was attending her first meeting under the auspices of the IGA. It was the eighth formal ministerial meeting under the intergovernmental agreement since the devolution of justice in April 2010. As I previously said in statements to the House, I am committed to keeping the Assembly informed of meetings held under the auspices of the agreement on the same basis as North/South Ministerial Council (NSMC) meetings.”
“That, however, is a point for the future. Today, let us remember the family burying their loved one and the loss that they in particular suffer.”
“If we are going to pay any respect to Ian Paisley's legacy, it would not just be in the words that we utter in the Chamber today but in a firm commitment to build on the agreements of 1998 and 2007 and embed power-sharing devolved government in a way that ensures that we, collectively, meet the needs of the people of Northern Ireland.”
“I tend to agree, because the reputation that he had established and the certainty with which he led his party gave him the authority and the courage to make that change and to bring us to where we are, in these institutions today, with credibility and with that change. <BR /> <BR />I suspect that historians will record little of his actions as First Minister. The crucial issue was that he brought about change in which he became First Minister in a partnership power-sharing Executive in this Building. The fact that he did so presented us, as others have said, with the opportunities and the challenges that we face in the difficult circumstances we are in today.”
“I remember a conversation in the period that led up to the St Andrews Agreement, although it was some time before it, and which was private and which I did not report, from which it was clear that he could see that there was a need for change, that he wanted to see change happen, and that he wanted to be part of something positive. He sought to bring his party around to that view along with others. Eventually, of course, at St Andrews and then in talks in and around this Building in the spring of 2007, he saw that happen. <BR /> <BR />Over the last few days, many journalists have said that only he could have brought the DUP into that form of power-sharing.”
“There is no doubt that that was a time when, some of us will remember, all was not particularly easy in the Chamber. Sometimes, sitting in the Alliance Party wedge immediately between the DUP and Sinn Féin was not always the easiest place to be. Yet, in the Committee, even though Ian Paisley was reluctant sometimes to use people's names, when he looked down the table and pointed and said, "This gentleman will now ask a question", and the gentleman in question was our former colleague Francie Molloy, he proved that the political did not have to become the personal as well and he could take that forward. <BR /> <BR />It is clear that in the years following the Good Friday Agreement, when the balance of power in unionism changed, he could see a different role.”
“I know that my colleagues in the Northern Health and Social Services Board saw many typewriter ribbons — that is how long ago it was — worn out in the letters of reply that went back as he followed up the case of any constituent who went to him. I have no doubt that the Northern Health and Social Services Board was not the only public agency that bore the brunt of his representations on behalf of the people of North Antrim and, of course, subsequently as an MEP, of any part of Northern Ireland on whose behalf he cared to follow matters up. <BR /> <BR />I got to know him personally particularly well when, following the Good Friday Agreement and the full restoration of powers to this place, I was a member of the Agriculture Committee, which he chaired.”
“The journalists are already asking the "what if" and the "what if not" questions, but the reason why we are paying tribute today is because he became First Minister of Northern Ireland and he played his part in that. <BR /> <BR />On the day he stepped down from office, I remember saying that historians would have to judge whether he was remembered for 40 years of saying no or for two years of saying yes; but today we can commemorate the fact that we have a working Assembly and that he played a significant part in ensuring that that happened. <BR /> <BR />I can certainly remember as far back as the 1970s when, as well as being the preacher and the politician with the fiery rhetoric, he was also an assiduous constituency worker.”
“On behalf of my colleagues in the Chamber and in the Alliance Party generally, I also wish to express our sympathy to Eileen, Baroness Paisley, her children and grandchildren, the family circle and those who loved and respected Ian Paisley most. Also, as you have done, Mr Principal Deputy Speaker, we wish to record our best wishes to the Speaker for a speedy recovery, and we hope to see him back soon in his place in the Assembly. <BR /> <BR />Ian Paisley was certainly a man of many parts; he was a preacher, a politician and, of course, a partner and a parent. Many of us in the Chamber disagreed with many of the things that Ian Paisley did and said over many years, and we should not seek to brush that aside as we look at his legacy.”
“We will never know what might have happened had he been in that post for a bit longer, but there is absolutely no doubt that the contribution that he made in the short time he had in office was very significant. We and the people of Ireland, North and South, are all beneficiaries of it.”
“<BR /> <BR />I certainly remember one meeting at which we discussed the practical arrangements for the establishment of the Forum for Peace and Reconciliation during the early post-ceasefire days. There is absolutely no doubt that it was a sign of his wishes that there would be the maximum possible attendance in order to seek the best possible understanding between the parties of these islands. He did not get everybody he would have wished to be there, but he certainly ensured that the forum helped to set in train what became the Castle Buildings talks a couple of years later. <BR /> <BR />Of course, he was not Taoiseach for very long.”
“Albert Reynolds was not seen as somebody who was naturally sympathetic to the viewpoint of unionists. He came from a different kind of background, but there is no doubt that his business contacts, his relationships with a wide variety of people across the border and maybe the fact that he had a base in the midlands and not just in the Dublin metropolitan area gave him a different outlook and a degree of understanding of the cross-border nature of relationships on this island, even if he was not ever likely to be seen as a unionist. <BR /> <BR />Just as, a few minutes ago, we praised Sam Foster for the way in which he came into a different set of arrangements, bringing his political principles with him, there is no doubt that Albert Reynolds sought to encourage that as he brought his principles as well.”
“When people look back on those events of the 1990s, they are likely to see the photos that the BBC will pull out every now and again of the clip peeling round the conference room in Castle Buildings, with Tony Blair, Bertie Ahern and some of us, as well as some who are no longer in this Chamber, and it is unfortunate in many ways that the contribution that was played by Sir John Major and Albert Reynolds in the early days of the peace process does not get recognised because there is absolutely no doubt that the relationship that the two of them established laid the foundations on which others built to put forward the Good Friday Agreement. There is also no doubt that that kind of change in relationships and understanding between the two Governments really only began when Albert Reynolds became Taoiseach and replaced his predecessor.”
“I just wish to add a few words, on behalf of my colleagues, in tribute to Albert Reynolds and in sympathy to his wife, family and family circle. <BR /> <BR />As has been said, there is no doubt that it has only really been in recent days that people have fully acknowledged the role that Albert Reynolds played in the early days of the peace process.”
“<BR /> <BR />There is no doubt that he was a gentlemen in all his dealings, including to those of us on the Committee who did not always make life easy for him. He was straightforward and honest. He was an example of public service that we should all seek to live up to. On behalf of my colleagues, I extend our sympathy to his wife, children, family and friends.”
“Even if, supposedly, he was surprised, it was clearly a reward for the good job that he had done in bringing members of his party into this place. Where I got to know him most was in my role as a member of the Environment Committee while he was Minister. He was certainly an interesting person to deal with in the details of that, and he clearly had a commitment not just to being a Minister but to doing that job. It is rather unfortunate that the suspension of the Assembly in 2002 meant that three significant pieces of legislation were not his but merely became Orders in Council in Westminster, because we would have seen that legislation as the epitaph to his ministerial service had that Assembly survived.”
“I appreciate the opportunity to add a few words from my colleagues. There is absolutely no doubt that Sam Foster's life was marked by public service in a whole range of spheres: first, his main career in social work and the education welfare field, where he undoubtedly contributed to the welfare of many families in Fermanagh; his role as a special constable and as an officer in the Ulster Defence Regiment; his time on Fermanagh District Council, which others have spoken about so favourably; and then his election to the first Assembly. There is no doubt that he came here with his unionist principles. He did not come here having changed his mind but he was determined to make this place work for the good of all of us in Northern Ireland. It is no surprise that, in that context, he was given a ministerial post.”