Steve Aiken
South Antrim · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for his statement. Minister, as well as the move to reduce the cost to the Assembly of vacant non-domestic properties and to increase liability so that we will not have so many vacant properties, you will be aware of the Dilapidation Bill and of the conversations that have been taking place in Wales and Scotland about…”
“Instead, that most dysfunctional Department, under the most inept Sinn Féin Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a series of grossly over-superannuated permanent secretaries, gave the money back.”
“We know that her Department spends more on legal cases, fighting judicial reviews and being chastised by judges for legal ineptitude and on vesting land and ripping out hedges and fencing and then trying to unvest it and paying even more money to put back the fences and hedges that it took out.”
“We can hardly blame the current permanent secretary, as she has just taken up her post, but, surely, her predecessors must bear some accountability or responsibility, especially considering the senior civil servants' salary scale of between £146,000 and £163,000, with, of course, their taxpayer-funded pension contribution of 34·2% — £218,…”
“It must be said that £181·3 million is a lot of taxpayers' hard-earned money. It is money that is raised from local commuters, vehicle owners, farmers, local businesses, logistics companies and, above all, our constituents — those vital people whom we are elected to represent.”
“The Minister will be aware that, under the public appointments guide published by the Executive Office, it is clear that she is supposed to take independent advice before appointing board members. What independent advice did she receive, particularly about the board members selected?”
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“While Séamus had a very different view of the future of Northern Ireland from that of the Ulster Unionist Party, we are the first to recognise that he was a statesman of the first order, a politician with that very rare quality of steadfast integrity and someone who, along with David Trimble, believed that only by truly working together in a spirit of partnership could we make this place truly be 'A Shared Home Place'. Maybe, Mr Speaker, it could be his lasting legacy that we current political leaders draw inspiration from his words and decide, once and for all, that power-sharing, rather than power division, should be the model we seek to achieve and make this truly a place to cherish.”
“<BR /> <BR />I first came to know Séamus long before I got into politics through my involvement in a range of North/South and east-west bodies. He was always courteous but forthright in his views, and he had a fierce determination to get his point across. When I became involved in politics, he was always supportive, although a bit bemused at why I would wish to get involved. As he said himself, it was catch-22: you had to be mad to want to be a politician, but, if nobody did it, where would we be? <BR /> <BR />What always struck me about Séamus was his integrity, his courage and his abhorrence of all forms of violence. As he himself wrote:”
“I rise to pay my respects and offer my sympathies to Orla and the wider Mallon family, and may I then add my own words and those of the Ulster Unionist Party to commemorate the life of a great Irishman: Séamus Mallon? <BR /> <BR />Séamus and our then leader, David Trimble, did much to see Northern Ireland emerge from the destructive and evil days of the Troubles, and, while David saw the recognition of the Nobel Prize, Séamus, who probably deserved it as much as his leader, John Hume, has only latterly been recognised for the inspirational leader and politician that he was; indeed, as one of my predecessors, Lord Empey, said today, there was no doubt that, if John Hume was the SDLP's ideas man, Séamus was the person to turn those ideas into practice and workable solutions.”
“The only way we can make these changes and influence this is if we all join together and make it happen. First Minister and deputy First Minister, you have a significant task ahead of you. We, in the Ulster Unionist Party, will be willing to support it, but we need to get on with it, and we need to get on with it now.”
“<BR /> <BR />There are some practical issues. We need to see the rapid creation of the Brexit subcommittee that was talked about in the deal last week. In parallel, we need to establish a ministerial-level lead to coordinate with the other regions. We need to have representation at the JMC and to build a Northern Ireland case in London, Brussels and further afield. There is an opportunity here, First and deputy First Ministers, to build a full partnership approach, a partnership on behalf of Northern Ireland between the political parties, the representatives of the business community, the third sector, the Civil Service and relevant academic research. We can all come together. First and deputy First Ministers, quite frankly, there is little appetite in the EU, London or Dublin to deliver what is best for us in Northern Ireland.”
“It is notable that the concerns that have been expressed by the business community and the political parties and that were given considerable cross-party support in the 'New Decade, New Approach' document do not seem to have been supported by what has been going on in Westminster, particularly by the Government. Although there is a welcome and considerable step forward, particularly, in the 'New Decade, New Approach' and the approach from all the parties, that mainly took the form of Government commitments to consult. Who here believes that the current British Government will do much in the way of consulting? How that is to be done and whether it will enable Northern Ireland views to be taken into account as the UK implements its protocols and in the negotiations of the future UK/EU relationship is, to say the least, unclear.”
“The withdrawal Bill puts the withdrawal agreement into UK law. The withdrawal agreement will affect Northern Ireland in perpetuity when it is passed, not just in relation to the EU but in relation to the rest of our country. The withdrawal Bill is legislation that will be built on in future in order to manage the domestic implications of this protocol. That can be expected to take the form of statutory instruments that the Government will lay down. Northern Ireland will have little influence and virtually absolutely no hope of annulling them. <BR /> <BR />The withdrawal Bill provides extraordinary power to the UK Executive over areas of potential devolved competence. The power of the Northern Ireland Executive and Assembly is directly constrained by the Bill.”
“Nobody seemed to understand the quantum and the amount of work and effort that needs to go into trying to achieve where we are going to; indeed, earlier last week, our conversations with senior EU and UK political leaders showed that Northern Ireland is rapidly sliding down the priority list. There is little or no focus on making this agreement work, and that has massive potential political costs and may lead to regulation being passed on to our businesses, our consumers and our agriculture and fishing sectors. Unfortunately, the implications of all this were and are sadly predictable.”
“I echo the comments made by everybody else today, and I will support the motion on behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party. <BR /> <BR />The comments from the Chancellor at the weekend in the 'Financial Times' underpin how much Northern Ireland is now likely to diverge from the rest of our country. The implications, particularly on the Irish Sea border, are significant. However, no one seems to really care about what the practical implications of that may be; indeed, in the discussions the party leaders had with the Secretary of State less than a week ago, when we were sitting round the table, nobody seemed to be aware of the significance of the changes that will occur.”
“We, too, have a lot of sympathy for Mr Allister's motion and for what other Members have said. We need to be very aware, however, that we have not had sufficient time to debate the issue, and there is time before the withdrawal deal goes through in the other House for us to get our position across. <BR /> <BR />We, like many other parties, have been working very closely with the business community and civic society, and we would have wished amendments to be put into the Executive Office motion to be able to make the points clear, particularly on the withdrawal agreement. We therefore support the motion.”
“We nominate Roy Beggs to the Public Accounts Committee.”
“For this one thing, Mr Speaker, I indeed confer the responsibility to my Chief Whip, Robbie Butler.”
“You hope this is a transference, but we are not doing that.”
“Thank you, Mr Speaker. I nominate Robin Swann MLA as the new Minister of Health for Northern Ireland.”
“The fact that we will be in receipt of considerable — albeit, we do not yet know how much — largesse from our Government to sort out some of our problems gives a burden to us to make sure we appropriately manage those resources and deliver for the people of Northern Ireland. Be in no doubt whatsoever: over the next two years, or however long the Assembly is going to run, we must be able to make our government work. So, the Ulster Unionist Party pledges to work closely with our other partners in government, but we want to see a genuine transformation. We must change the culture of government in Northern Ireland. If we do not, Mr Speaker, First Minister and deputy First Minister, we are doomed to fail. We cannot allow that to happen.”
“It would be churlish of me not to welcome the appointment of the new First Minister and deputy First Minister. <BR /> <BR />For us, the key to this is being able to transform Northern Ireland and to make it work again. I say to all the new MLAs who are in the Chamber: we have a real task ahead of us, because if we have seen anything over the past couple of years, it is that Northern Ireland desperately needs open, transparent, accountable and responsible government that is open to everybody in Northern Ireland, to see how we will make changes. <BR /> <BR />I look at the Gallery and I see members of the Civil Service and others. A considerable amount of work needs to be done on reform. The Northern Ireland political and government machine is broken. It needs to be fixed.”
“I say clearly that I fully recommend and support Roys Beggs, and I would like you all to do the same.”
“I echo some of the comments that have been made here. It has been far too long since the Assembly has been up and running. Whoever takes on the role of Speaker has to be somebody who brings a considerable degree of tact, diplomacy, knowledge and experience to the role. I cannot think of anybody in the Assembly who would be better suited to that role than Roy Beggs. He is one of the longest-standing Members of the Assembly, going back to 1998. Anybody who has known Roy through his work on Committees or as an MLA or, indeed, from some of the times that he has sat in the Chair in which you are sitting now, Mr Acting Speaker, knows that he is of the utmost integrity. What the Assembly needs, going forward, is somebody who makes sure that it is seen to do what the people of Northern Ireland want it to do.”
“I propose Roy Beggs MLA as Speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly.”
“Come on, Simon, you are better than that.”
“Thank you very much indeed, Minister, for your comments so far. You will be aware of the comments today by Ryanair about the cost of the new runway at Dublin Airport. Bearing in mind that it has been funded through the state, would the Minister care to refer Dublin Airport Authority to the EU competition authority, particularly for its seeming use of state funds to build infrastructure in an unfair manner?”
“I thank the Minister very much for his words. Since we are heading into a long period of suspension, potentially, and given the current instability and uncertainty about the future of the institutions, does the Minister agree with me that this makes his decision not to devolve the regeneration powers promised to councils under the review of public administration even more absurd?”
“Minister, one of the key questions that we are going to have going forward here is whether the business case has, in fact, been received. Will the Minister address that now before we go any further, because that will probably colour some of the remarks?”
“Thank you very much indeed for giving way. I ask the Member to reflect on the fact that, if incompetence is a defence for what has gone on, maybe we should reflect on the complete incompetence of this whole Fresh Start Sinn Féin/DUP Government. If incompetence seems to be the lead for what we are trying to achieve going forward, it is best gone and gone now.”
“Does the Member agree that, with this plethora of special advisers doing this and that, it would have been much better had the Minister just come clean and told us which special adviser advised what?”
“In the light of the recent sentencing of a man caught in possession of abuse manuals who was employed at a school to only 12 months' imprisonment and two years on licence, and who is now due to be released because of time already served awaiting trial, will the Minister outline what conversations he has had with the Justice Minister on this very serious issue?”
“Thank you very much indeed for those comments. For clarity, the fact is that the business case has not yet been passed by the Department of Finance. Our advice is very clear: the risk for this entire process lies with the Minister and nobody else.”
“Mr Speaker, I am sure that I will have your indulgence as Deputy Chair of the Economy Committee.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. The Member will be aware, of course, that we have managed to spend £30 million this year alone and are spending £85,000 a day. There is no business case or business plan. Indeed, we also have legal opinion that the plan may be subject to challenge. How does the Member tie that in with what she has just said?”
“Gentlemen. I thank the Minister for her comments so far and for coming through. On a point of clarification, you mention Dalriada. Dalriada out-of-hours service is excellent; I have used it many times for my children. However, the Minister must be aware that it is under severe pressure, and it is based in Ballymena. How will it cover the people of Portadown?”
“— now that the Minister has clearly stated his suspicions of fraud. I ask that we support the motion.”
“— would, in normal circumstances, and definitely in Great Britain, require the attention of the Serious Fraud Office. Today, as a party, we have written to the PSNI to ask what actions it is taking to investigate this scandal —”
“The question again to be asked, while the Minister is still here, is this: why does he not call for a public inquiry now? <BR /> <BR />With my final comments, I will talk to a serious matter that the Economy Minister raised yesterday and that has been alluded to during the debate, and it is the question of potential fraud. It would be no surprise that matters involving many millions of pounds—”
“We should also explore the issue of the rating scheme to reduce that as well. We have not had the chance to look at any of these issues in sufficient detail, and we need to do that as well. <BR /> <BR />Thank you very much, Gerry and Eamonn, but there is definitely a clear issue of accountability here and where it lies. Everybody in Northern Ireland is asking for the answers to this, and these are key questions. These are things that we need to talk about as well. <BR /> <BR />Jim Allister's contribution was eloquent but very clear on the reasons why we definitely need a public inquiry.”
“No, I want to continue on. <BR /> <BR />Philip Smith's contribution was very clear and concise and brought out some of the most important and key issues going forward. I was interested in Mr Poots's comments about culpability. You are quite right; we need to look at the whole chain. One of the things we looked at considerably in the military was the chain of command, all the way from the top to the bottom. All of it needs to be looked at. <BR /> <BR />Thank you very much, Nichola, for your contribution. Indeed, there are unquestionable truths. What we need to do and be very clear about is to deal with these unquestionable truths and that can only be led by a public inquiry. <BR /> <BR />Thank you very much, Steven, for supporting our plan for moving towards a windfall tax.”
“Thank you for that intervention. Yes, that is the normal course, custom and practice of the role of special advisers. However, for some strange reason, here in Northern Ireland in our Sinn Féin/DUP SpAdocracy, we seem to have completely missed that point.”
“I thank Mr Frew. Thank you very much for leading me in, because I was about to talk about the contribution from Mr Bell and, particularly, the concerns about the roles of SpAds. If ever we needed an indication of why we need a public inquiry, what was going on? Who was running the Government at the time? Was it the SpAds or was it the Ministers? Was it being properly and accountably looked at? These are really serious questions that need to be answered.”
“Thank you very much indeed, and yes, I would agree with that.”
“I will move on to more serious issues. Sinéad, you are quite right. Sinéad Bradley pointed out the fact that there is a complete lack of clarity of thinking and that there is fraudulent activity, or suspected fraudulent activity, but there is something in this that needs to be investigated, and I will return to that later on. <BR /> <BR />Paul Frew made a contribution; thank you very much indeed.”
“Thank you very much indeed, Gordon Lyons, for your contribution. I was also interested in my honourable friend Mr Beggs's intervention. We were talking about the returns that we were looking at. Whereas in Northern Ireland we were getting returns from the RHI initiative of somewhere in the region of 84%, the returns in GB were around 7·4%. There is obviously something to be looked at. <BR /> <BR />Thank you very much indeed, Christopher Stalford. We missed you. We enjoy your contributions. It was good to hear from you again. Thank you, and we will miss you.”
“The lack of business process, risk management and even basic project management smacks of something as bad as the Ministry of Defence used to do. It is like something that would have happened 20 years ago. There is a definite failure in our mechanisms of government. I know that we have all called for the political side of it to be addressed, but something desperately has to be done about the state and functioning of our Civil Service, because, quite clearly, at least in the Department for the Economy, formerly DETI, it is not fit for purpose going forward.”
“Do you want a public inquiry? Please say. Yes? <BR /> <BR />Thank you very much indeed, Robin Swann, for your contribution. I know the constraints that you are under as the Chair of the PAC, but I think everybody at this end of the House very clearly gives thanks to you for your chairmanship and to the PAC for its hard work and for what it has done to bring the issues to the fore. <BR /> <BR />Like Stephen Farry, I, too, am particularly surprised that HM Treasury is not interested in what is going on, because the issue here is not just the potential £0·6 billion but the £1·18 billion cost to the UK taxpayer — and, ladies and gentlemen, we are all UK taxpayers, so I am surprised that this is not of interest going forward. <BR /> <BR />I fully support and agree with Gordon Dunne's comments about what is going on.”
“We have turned what was a financial crisis into an existential threat to the whole of the institutions and what is happening in Northern Ireland. We need to move on from this. There was an opportunity for leadership and direction and that has, very sadly for everybody here, been missed. <BR /> <BR />I will go on to some of the comments. First, thanks very much indeed to Claire for her excellent and eloquent introduction. It is the first time that I have heard the 12 days of Christmas approach. It is vital that the judge be appointed by the Lord Chief Justice; it cannot be by the Attorney General. All of us at this end of the Assembly very clearly say that as well. <BR /> <BR />Thank you very much indeed, Emma Little Pengelly, for your contribution, but we were unsure what you were saying about a public inquiry.”
“<BR /> <BR />First, given Simon Hamilton's push for the statutory rule yesterday and for the need to expedite the haemorrhaging of funding of £85,000 a day from our very constrained Budget, he has, as Mr Dickson clearly pointed out, the opportunity, even at this late stage, to call for a public inquiry. I would like him to do that at this late stage; set it up and get it moving. He can do the right thing. Do the right thing now. <BR /> <BR />We also talked about the First Minister standing aside without prejudice and about how that could have not only helped us to get to the bottom of the RHI scandal but, probably more importantly, restored confidence in this institution and in the Government of Northern Ireland.”
“I am sorry, Gerry. Apologies for that, but let us crack on. <BR /> <BR />Before I summarise all the contributions to the debate, I thank everybody who has been involved in it, particularly for the vigour and clear direction that they have put into the discussion and for raising some of the key areas that have come out of this. Before I add my clear support for the motion, I will make a few pertinent remarks about helping to restore confidence in the institutions and, above all, get to the truth. Many of the Members who spoke talked to these points.”
“<BR /> <BR />I suspect that we will also consider the issues around the economic impact, take views on the understanding of what the European dimension is and what it is likely to be, and apply, even at this short final stage, more effective scrutiny for the Assembly and, more importantly, for the people of Northern Ireland. I support the motion.”
“Speaking as the Deputy Chair of the Economy Committee, in the continued absence of Sinn Féin, I welcome the opportunity for the Economy Committee to provide more detailed scrutiny of this statutory rule. It would give us great opportunity to get the Minister and the permanent secretary back, to take the detail of the business plan, which we have not had a look at yet, and to have the draft PwC report presented to us so that we are able to provide some detailed scrutiny. We may be able to call directly on key stakeholders like RHA NI, the Ulster Farmers' Union and other groups. It will also allow very clearly, as my party leader pointed out, for the Examiner of Statutory Rules to take the opportunity to report to us, having had appropriate time to be able to consider the rule.”
“It has destroyed the reputation of an entire system of government, and from a financial corruption issue, the actions of ex-First Minister Arlene Foster and her DUP Government have created an existential threat to the very fabric of Northern Ireland. The RHI scheme has become, in more ways than one, a veritable bonfire of DUP vanities.”
“What we need for our health service, universities, schools and for the reputation of our country is to stem the wholly avoidable haemorrhage of £85,000 a day, every day. <BR /> <BR />As a party, we will listen carefully to the remaining arguments expressed today before we make a decision. Be in no doubt of this: since July of last year, as a party, we have been tirelessly holding, or attempting to hold, our Government to account. If at any stage our Fresh Start SF/DUP "shamocracy" had concentrated on good governance rather than on spin, we would not be in the position we are in now. Again, be in no doubt: this crisis has been mishandled from the beginning.”
“I emphasise that none of us has seen the business case and, obviously, the Finance Minister is not in agreement with it, but we could possibly see opportunities for that figure to be reduced dramatically. That is to be welcomed, if it is achievable. <BR /> <BR />We are also uncertain of the examination of the statutory rule, as has been pointed out today, and the Committee agreed today only to note the statutory rule. We are uncertain of the legality of the process. Again, we are reliant wholly on the Minister and the permanent secretary's assertion. Members will draw their own inference from the Minister refusing to contemplate resignation if there is a successful legal challenge.”