Northern Ireland Assembly, 9 February 2015

308 contributions from 57 members. The official report.

Committee Business

Mitchel McLaughlin (Speaker, South Antrim)

As with similar motions, the motion on Committee membership will be treated as a business motion and there will be no debate.

Resolved:

That Mr Roy Beggs replace Mr Michael Copeland as a member of the Committee for Social Development; and that Mr Robin Swann replace Mr Roy Beggs as a member of the Assembly and Executive Review Committee. — [Mr Swann.]

Executive Committee Business

Simon Hamilton (DUP, Strangford)

I beg to move

That Standing Orders 10(2) to 10(4) be suspended for 9 February 2015.

Mitchel McLaughlin (Speaker, South Antrim)

Before we proceed to the Question, I remind Members that the motion requires cross-community support.

Question put and agreed to. Resolved (with cross-community support):

That Standing Orders 10(2) to 10(4) be suspended for 9 February 2015.

Mitchel McLaughlin (Speaker, South Antrim)

As usual, there will be a single debate on the motions. One amendment has been selected for debate regarding the Supply resolution for the 2015-16 Vote on Account and is published on the Marshalled List. As a valid of petition of concern was presented on Friday 6 February in relation to the amendment, the vote on the amendment will be on a cross-community basis. I shall call the Minister to move the first motion, which is on the 2014-15 spring Supplementary Estimates. The debate on all three motions and the amendment will then begin. When all those who wish to speak have done so, or when the time limit has been reached, I shall put the Question on the first motion.

The second motion, which is the 2015-16 Vote on Account, will then be read into the record, and I will call the Minister to move it. The amendment will then be read into the record, and I will call Mr Allister to move it. The Question will then be put on the amendment followed by the Question on the second motion. After the Question is put on the second motion, the third motion, which is the 2015-16 Main Estimate, will then be read into the record, and I will call the Minister to move it. The Question will then be put on that motion.

The Business Committee has agreed to allow up to four hours and 30 minutes for the debate. The Minister will have up to 60 minutes to allocate at his discretion between proposing and winding. The proposer of the amendment will have 10 minutes to propose the amendment and five minutes to make a winding-up speech. All other Members who are called to speak will have 10 minutes. If that is clear, I shall proceed.

Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice, North Antrim)

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Could I have clarification about the validity of a petition of concern? Surely, at the point at which the signatories apply their name, they should know that which they are petitioning. In this case, the petition that was lodged contains your name, Mr Speaker, Tippexed out, which suggests that it came out of the bottom of a drawer and was prepared long before the motion that it is petitioning ever came into existence. How, therefore, could a petition of concern be valid if, when the signatories applied their signatures, they did not know that which they were petitioning?

Mitchel McLaughlin (Speaker, South Antrim)

The Member will understand the process as well as anyone in the House. I, as Speaker, have to judge whether the petition of concern is valid. I seek to determine whether the names of those who have signed that petition are valid and whether it was submitted in the appropriate fashion. That is as far as I intend to go with the point that you made. You have succeeded in putting it on the record, and I suspect that you will be satisfied with that.

Simon Hamilton (DUP, Strangford)

I beg to move

That this Assembly approves that a total sum, not exceeding £15,646,075,000, be granted out of the Consolidated Fund for or towards defraying the charges for Northern Ireland Departments, the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission, the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints, the Food Standards Agency, the Northern Ireland Audit Office, the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland for the year ending 31 March 2015 and that total resources, not exceeding £17,051,879,000, be authorised for use by Northern Ireland Departments, the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission, the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints, the Food Standards Agency, the Northern Ireland Audit Office, the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland for the year ending 31 March 2015 as summarised for each Department or other public body in columns 3(c) and 2(c) of table 1 in the volume of the Northern Ireland Spring Supplementary Estimates 2014-15 that was laid before the Assembly on 2 February 2015.

The following motions stood in the Order Paper:

That this Assembly approves that a sum, not exceeding £7,075,640,000, be granted out of the Consolidated Fund on account for or towards defraying the charges for Northern Ireland Departments, the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission, the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints, the Food Standards Agency, the Northern Ireland Audit Office, the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland for the year ending 31 March 2016 and that resources, not exceeding £7,742,283,000, be authorised, on account, for use by Northern Ireland Departments, the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission, the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints, the Food Standards Agency, the Northern Ireland Audit Office, the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland for the year ending 31 March 2016 as summarised for each Department or other public body in columns 4 and 6 of table 1 in the Vote on Account 2015-16 document that was laid before the Assembly on 2 February 2015. — [Mr Hamilton (The Minister of Finance and Personnel).]

That this Assembly authorises resources, not exceeding £50,000, for use by the Department of Justice Northern Ireland Judicial Pensions Scheme for the year ending 31 March 2016, for the purposes specified in column 1 of the 2015-16 Main Estimate document that was laid before the Assembly on 2 February 2015. — [Mr Hamilton (The Minister of Finance and Personnel).]

The Supply resolution debate is a critical step in the legislative process that governs our finances. The debate commencing today primarily covers the final spending plans for the 2014-15 financial year, but it also covers the first few months of 2015-16 and the 2015-16 Main Estimate for the new judiciary pension scheme. Today, I am tabling three Supply motions for debate. Through the first motion, I seek the Assembly's legislative approval of the Executive's final spending plans for 2014-15. As Members will be aware, these final spending plans are detailed in the spring Supplementary Estimates. The second motion requests interim legislative cover for resources and funding for the first few months of 2015-16 in the form of a Vote on Account. The third motion seeks legislative cover to spend in respect of the new judicial pension scheme that will come into effect on 1 April 2015.

I request the levels of Supply set out in the motions under section 63 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998, which provides for the Minister of Finance and Personnel to make recommendations to the Assembly, leading to cash appropriations from the Northern Ireland Consolidated Fund. The amounts that I now ask the Assembly to vote in Supply for 2014-15 are substantial: some £15·6 billion in cash, £17·1 billion of resources and £2·4 billion of accruing resources to be used by Departments and other public bodies in Northern Ireland.

As I mentioned, the first Supply motion relates to the spring Supplementary Estimates, which reflect all in-year changes made since the Main Estimates were approved by the Assembly last June. That includes any funding surrendered by Departments, allocations received or other technical transfers of funding processed through the three monitoring rounds in this financial year. They reflect the departmental expenditure limit (DEL) changes agreed by the Executive at the June, October and January monitoring rounds, and the annually managed expenditure (AME) funding agreed by the Treasury since the approval of the 2014-15 Main Estimates. Therefore, this legislation process simply ratifies Budgets previously agreed by the Executive.

Before going into the detail of the 2014-15 public expenditure transactions, I think that this is an opportune time to reflect on what has been an incredibly challenging year. The public expenditure environment that the Executive and Assembly had to face was immensely difficult, and there were times when the scale of the challenges facing us threatened to unhinge the entire Executive. The reasons for the very tight public expenditure position have been well documented. It was a combination of a reduction in our spending power since 2010 of more than £1 billion, increasing pressure on our public services, such as health, and the impasse over welfare reform. With the Stormont House Agreement, we now have a basis to move forward in respect of both political agreement and public finances. Specifically, the agreement on welfare reform has put the Executive's finances back on a long-term sustainable footing. The Executive’s publication of a 2015-16 Budget last month means that we can look ahead with a key cornerstone in place to underpin the agreement.

The Stormont House Agreement also paved the way for the Assembly to take on new powers to vary our rate of corporation tax. What we have achieved over the last few months should, therefore, not be underestimated. That said, it is well known that it has been a bumpy road. I am still frustrated that it took so long to get agreement to implement welfare reform. The UK Government still insist on deducting funding from our Budget for the non-implementation of welfare reform to date. In this financial year alone, that deduction amounted to £87 million, which could otherwise have been used to deliver public services in Northern Ireland . With the Stormont House Agreement, we were able to negotiate additional flexibility to address the issue of welfare reform deductions, and I am pleased that we now have a mechanism to deal with that, but we should not forget that failure to proceed earlier on welfare reform has cost us £100 million in lost investment in public services.

I now want to look ahead with renewed focus and optimism to ensure that we continue to deliver for the people of Northern Ireland. I hope that everyone else in the Chamber shares that vision.

Let me return to the detail of the 2014-15 in-year changes, which is the focus of today’s debate. We began the 2014-15 financial year with an overcommitment of £76·7 million on the resource side and £51·6 million on the capital side. That is normal budget management practice and was based on the expectation that the Executive would be able to more than recoup those amounts through reduced requirements being surrendered in the monitoring rounds. In any other year, that approach would have been perfectly logical, as it was when the Executive agreed their 2011-15 Budget in 2010. However, in terms of the resource budget, this year was not business as usual.

As I said, in the June monitoring round, we were facing a critical financial position that required in-year resource reductions to be imposed on Departments. As Members will recall, the Executive agreed reductions to departmental resource DEL of 4·4% across the June and October monitoring rounds. That impacted all Departments, with the exception of the Departments of Health and Education and a number of minor public bodies. In fact, the total amount of departmental reductions applied in this year was £164·6 million.

So far, my understanding is that the Departments are on target to deliver those savings, perhaps with the exception of the Department for Regional Development, which bid for additional resource funding in the January monitoring round. I reiterate the critical importance of all Ministers adhering to their budget control totals and, indeed, the resource and cash limits included in the spring Supplementary Estimates.

Despite the in-year reductions applied to departmental resource budgets, some reduced requirements were still surrendered through the monitoring rounds. On the non-ring-fenced resource side, that amounted to £36·1 million. As would be expected, given the in-year reductions, that was significantly less than the £90·7 million surrendered last year.

If we take funding to manage the overcommitment, technical adjustments and other issues into account, the Executive balanced the in-year reductions with allocations of some £206·8 million non-ring-fenced resource during 2014-15. A considerable proportion of that — £80 million — went to the Department of Health to ensure continuation of critical front-line health services. Funding was also allocated to key Executive commitments, including local government reform, Invest NI business support and the historical institutional abuse inquiry. Additional resource funding was also provided to the Department of Justice for the PSNI and legal aid pressures.

On the capital side, the Departments surrendered some £331·1 million through the in-year monitoring rounds. Members should note that that included some £132·8 million identified in the Executive’s capital reallocation exercise in 2013, and that was not available for reallocation in this year. Some of the largest reductions included £119·5 million from the Department for Regional Development in respect of the A5 road scheme and £63·1 million from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in relation to its regional stadia programme.

If we take the opening position at the start of the year, technical adjustments and other issues into account, capital allocations to Departments amounted to some £226·9 million in 2014-15. That included £54·5 million to the Department for Social Development, primarily for the co-ownership scheme, social housing development and urban regeneration projects. There was also £48·3 million for the Department for Regional Development to fund the structural maintenance of roads and other capital works. There was also an allocation of £48·5 million financial transactions capital towards the University of Ulster's greater Belfast development scheme.

Those were just some of the departmental expenditure limit allocations in the monitoring rounds. However, the 2014-15 spring Supplementary Estimates also include some £3 billion of annually managed expenditure for social security benefits.

This funding goes a long way to protect those most in need and provides mainly for expenditure on disability benefits, pension support, employment and support allowance, jobseeker's allowance, income support and housing benefit.

Before leaving the detail of the spring Supplementary Estimates, I would like to highlight some limited headroom that has been built into the position over and above the January monitoring position. Headroom has been included for the Department for Social Development and the Department for Regional Development to ensure that, should other Departments have capital underspends before the end of the financial year, there is sufficient legislative cover to allow unspent capital to be redirected to these Departments. This will help the Executive to maximise capital expenditure and should ensure that no capital funding is lost to Northern Ireland under the Budget exchange scheme. I must emphasise that this headroom has been included on the condition that it must only be used if capital funding becomes available before the end of the financial year. I hope that Members will endorse these actions in respect of headroom and share my desire to avoid scarce capital funding being surrendered to the Treasury at the year-end.

Turning from the 2014-15 financial year and looking ahead to 2015-16, the second motion seeks approval of a cash and resource Vote on Account to ensure the continuation of services into the next financial year. The amounts of cash and resources proposed are an advance of around 45% of the final 2014-15 provision and have no direct correlation to the Budget allocations for 2015-16. This advance is simply necessary to enable services to continue into 2015-16 until the Main Estimates are presented to the Assembly for approval in June.

The final motion is the Main Estimate for the 2015-16 judicial pensions scheme. Legislation is currently under way to establish a new pension scheme for the devolved judiciary to take effect from 1 April this year. Since authority to spend in relation to this scheme must be in place before 1 April, the third motion introduces the 2015-16 Main Estimate for this new pension scheme.

I commend to Members the 2014-15 spring Supplementary Estimates, the 2015-16 Vote on Account, the 2015-16 judicial pensions scheme Main Estimate and the related Supply motions. At the end of today’s debate, I will endeavour to deal with the issues raised by Members.

The following amendment stood on the Marshalled List:

Leave out all after "Assembly approves" and insert "that a sum, not exceeding £7,075,390,000, reflecting a reduction in the cash grant from OFMDFM to the Equality Commission, be granted out of the Consolidated Fund on account for or towards defraying the charges for Northern Ireland Departments, the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission, the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints, the Food Standards Agency, the Northern Ireland Audit Office, the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland for the year ending 31 March 2016 and that resources, not exceeding £7,742,033,000, reflecting a reduction in the cash grant from OFMDFM to the Equality Commission, be authorised, on account, for use by Northern Ireland Departments, the Northern Ireland Assembly Commission, the Assembly Ombudsman for Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Commissioner for Complaints, the Food Standards Agency, the Northern Ireland Audit Office, the Northern Ireland Authority for Utility Regulation and the Public Prosecution Service for Northern Ireland for the year ending 31 March 2016 as summarised for each Department or other public body in columns 4 and 6 of table 1 in the Vote on Account 2015-16 document that was laid before the Assembly on 2 February 2015.". — [Mr Allister.]

Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice, North Antrim)

I will speak primarily to the subject matter of the amendment. Contrary to what I suspect some will allege, this amendment is not an assault on the existence of the Equality Commission. If it were, then, of course, the attempt to reduce its budget would be much more radical, because it has a budget of something approaching £6·5 million. This amendment, in a very proportionate way and by a relatively modest amount, seeks to afford MLAs an opportunity to rebuke the Equality Commission for its anti-Christian agenda.

The Equality Commission is publicly funded. Indeed, it requires the votes of today on the two resolutions to provide it with the funding that it spends. It is, effectively, living off and spending public money as an arm's-length body of OFMDFM, and its money comes by that route: through OFMDFM. Therefore, it is right that an elected Assembly should take an opportunity such as the Estimates debate to lay down markers in respect of the public performance of such a body.

This amendment seeks to do that in that measured way, to oppose and expose its adventurist agenda to try to suppress freedom of conscience in the area of human rights law. However you look at its recent actions, it is hard to escape the conclusion that part of this adventurist agenda is to push the boundaries of equality law to the point that it is beyond disputation that what they call "gay rights" trumps freedom of conscience. They utterly overwhelm them to the point that, no matter what religious freedom one might be supposed to have and no matter what freedom of conscience one might be supposed to have, there are circumstances, such as those that are manifesting themselves in current litigation, in which the Equality Commission wishes to demonstrate and to put beyond doubt that gay rights trump the Christian right to freedom of conscience. That is wrong, which is why, I believe, the opportunity is appropriate and timely to rebuke the mischievous madness of the Equality Commission in this regard.

Paul Givan (DUP, Lagan Valley)

I thank the Member for giving way. The commentary is around gay rights trumping the rights of conscience and Christians in our society, but is it not the case that for Ashers bakery the sexual orientation of the customer was irrelevant? It was the message that the bakery was being asked to produce that was the problem. Therefore, had a heterosexual male asked for a cake with that message, it would have denied the service to that individual as well, because it was the message as opposed to the messenger that there was an issue with.

Mitchel McLaughlin (Speaker, South Antrim)

I invite the Member to return to the subject of the debate. I was giving you some scope — I am sure you will appreciate that — but it is time to discuss the business of today. The intervention has required me to make that clear. I was worried that we might head off in a different direction on a different debate for a different occasion. Today, we are discussing the budgetary measures, and I invite the Member to concentrate on that in his remaining time.

Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice, North Antrim)

I agree entirely with the comments made in the intervention. The purpose of the amendment is to put down a marker to the Equality Commission on its spend of public money and show it that there are those in this House who object to its actions and want to take the opportunity, I hope, to disapprove in a tangible way, such as by voting for the amendment, to demonstrate that.

It strikes me that the Equality Commission must have too much money if it can afford to go on the adventurous persecution that it is involved in. Of course, the Equality Commission is very bloated with its level of public support: it has 130 staff. We run the Policing Board, apparently, with 47 staff, but the Equality Commission needs 130. The Victims and Survivors Service has 136; the Equality Commission has 130.

When we come to the Equality Commission, we discover the astounding fact that it cannot even provide for equality in its own house. According to its last annual report, of its 130 staff, 66% are from a Roman Catholic background and 33% are from a Protestant background. Sixty-five per cent are from a female background, but 34% are male. Surely within the Equality Commission we should expect wholly transparent manifestations of equality. Yet, we find that things are of that nature.

My message to the Equality Commission through this amendment is very straightforward. Take the beam out of your own eye in terms of equality before you start worrying about the adventurous matters that you are meddling in.

I trust that the House will take the opportunity to mark the Equality Commission's card in this matter. It is a matter of regret to me that the republican front in this House has sought to block expression through a petition of concern, but there still will be an opportunity for people to show their tangible disapproval.

I trust that many will take that opportunity today and send the message that needs to be sent to the Equality Commission.

Daithí McKay (Sinn Féin, North Antrim)

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. Senior DFP officials briefed the Committee for Finance and Personnel in relation to the spring Supplementary Estimates (SSE) and Vote on Account, and the Committee approved accelerated passage for the Budget Bill, which will be introduced by the Minister later today. That decision was on the basis that there had been appropriate consultation with the Committee as provided for by Standing Order 42(2), and I wrote to the Speaker to provide confirmation of that.

As was pointed out, the SSE reflect the changes that were made to the opening Budget position for 2014-15 as a result of the monitoring rounds in June, October and January. Additionally, the Department explained to the Committee that headroom was built into the spring Supplementary Estimates to give the Executive ability to spend any last-minute underspends on priority areas to ensure that no resources are lost to the Treasury under the Budget exchange scheme. That relates to the Department for Social Development and Department for Regional Development in particular.

During the evidence session, the Committee received helpful clarification from officials on a number of significant allocations, easements and technical adjustments that occurred during the in-year monitoring round process. The officials ran through the detail of those when explaining the reconciliation of the spring Supplementary Estimates with the Main Estimates of Departments, which were approved in the Assembly last summer.

That reconciliation exercise highlighted the scale of the movement of moneys across Departments during the year. From a quick calculation, the total resource allocations amounted to £239 million, while total capital allocations amounted to almost £227 million. That was against total easements of almost £78 million in resource and £331 million in capital. In some instances, the figures were substantial, in particular for Health, Social Development and Regional Development.

The Committee for Finance and Personnel undertook an active role in scrutinising the quarterly monitoring rounds at a strategic and departmental level throughout the 2014-15 financial year and received timely briefings on the Department's position prior to each monitoring round.

As regards its own expenditure, the Department of Finance and Personnel reported easements totalling £1·6 million in resource. In allocations, the Department received £5·8 million resource and £29·4 million capital, primarily in relation to the asset management strategy.

In the Committee's previous debate on its report into flexible working, a key issue in relation to office accommodation savings was that we do not yet have firm figures from the Department for the potential savings or even a plan setting out when and how those savings will be achieved. The Committee discovered that only 20% of Civil Service office space met workspace utilisation targets and traditional office space was typically occupied for only 45% of the time. Given the scope for significant savings in this area in 2015-16 and beyond, I expect the Committee will wish to closely monitor progress in this area.

Arising from last week's evidence from the Department of Finance and Personnel, the Committee agreed that in its future scrutiny it would be beneficial if, in advance of the Committee receiving an oral briefing and of the related Supply resolution debates, the Department provided the more-detailed information explaining the changes in departmental positions from the opening position to the Estimates. That would ensure that the Finance Committee and other Statutory Committees had a more detailed understanding of the changes ahead of debates. I look forward to the Department's response in that regard.

I turn now to the motion relating to the Vote on Account for 2015-16. That is a practical measure that provides interim resources at approximately 45% of the 2014-15 provision. That enables Departments, as the Minister said, to ensure that public services continue during the early part of the financial year until the Main Estimates for 2015-16 and the associated Budget Bill are debated by the Assembly before the summer.

I will now speak from my party's position. I turn first to Mr Allister's amendment. The amendment is juvenile and petty. The Member for North Antrim does not like a decision that the Equality Commission has made, so he wants us to just take its money away. This is a Budget debate. It is a serious debate for the House. We should not be led into any diversionary debates that, as the Speaker has already said, belong elsewhere. You cannot have your cake and eat it. Have your 10 minutes and have your little argument, but, as far as we are concerned, this proposal is going nowhere. It is part of a homophobic front, to use the Member's terminology, because the whole argument that has arisen from the proposed legislation is about not only targeting the LGBT community and undermining the Equality Commission but opening a Pandora's box on equality. It is no surprise that the Member has brought this proposal forward.

I turn now to corporation tax. The Committee recently received evidence from Dr Graham Gudgin from the Centre for Economic Policy. He made a very interesting point, and one that we certainly agree with, that, in the calculations around corporation tax, there is a clear deficit. Most people expect that if, when the Assembly receives corporation tax powers, there were a decision to reduce the rate, then the secondary tax impacts of that — for instance, an increase in income tax revenues, an increase in VAT, and a reduction in welfare payments — should result in a benefit to the Department of Finance here in Belfast. We looked at Scotland, because the Smith Commission has rightly secured an assurance that any secondary tax impacts arising from fiscal powers used by the Scottish Government will make their way back to Edinburgh and to the Scottish Government. The Minister and the Executive need to seek an assurance that we do not get only the sting in the tail of corporation tax in terms of the cost, the £300 million projections, that have been put out there. If this is going to result in significant revenues going to the Treasury in London, those should be taken off the cost of corporation tax.

We do not know what is going to happen in Westminster over the next few months. However, there is every possibility that Scotland and the SNP, which wants to see corporation tax powers in Edinburgh, will get a better deal on corporation tax. It is important that we ensure that we get a good deal and a complete deal on corporation tax and that the Treasury does not pull a fly one with the Executive. A lot of these situations arise for a very simple reason: the fact that we do not have adequate detail on revenues and taxes. The Department of Finance and Personnel is often left in the position where the Treasury can wilfully pull the wool over its eyes whether it likes it or not. This is not an ideal position and does not represent good governance as far as the people we represent are concerned. It will lead to situations where we are not getting an appropriate and fair deal when it comes to any dealings with the Treasury.

In the DEL budget contained in the document before us today, there is reference to the European Social Fund (ESF). There is a lot of concern out there at the moment. I recently met a number of organisations in my own constituency to talk about how the ESF payments and the ESF process have been dealt with. There is a sense that community-based groups have been cut out of this process. There have been questionable changes made to the criteria for level 1 and level 2 qualifications. It is important that, over the next financial year, the Minister for Employment and Learning looks after not only his own Department but those in the community and voluntary sector who, in a lot of instances, deliver better outcomes and better results on the community line.

Finally, a lot of money has gone to Health over the past year for front-line support. That will continue with the £200 million uplift in 2015-16, but I hope that the Health Minister will learn —

Mitchel McLaughlin (Speaker, South Antrim)

The Member's time is almost up.

Daithí McKay (Sinn Féin, North Antrim)

— that any decisions he makes will have to be based on protecting front-line services, like those at Dalriada, and that they will also need to be rural proofed in the year ahead.

Alastair Ross (DUP, East Antrim)

I am pleased to be able to speak on behalf of the Committee for Justice, which has obviously regularly scrutinised through written and oral briefings the Department of Justice's budget, including the delivery of savings plans, as well as pressures and easements, which are identified in monitoring rounds. As everyone is now aware, it has been a particularly challenging time for the Department of Justice, given the in-year budget reductions arising from the October monitoring round and the ongoing pressures created in other parts of the Department, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies.

Primarily, the ongoing costs of legal aid are of particular concern. Last week, I was at a Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference to mark the 800th anniversary of the Magna Carta, a document that many Members will understand is rooted in the foundation of parliamentary democracy and, indeed, the rule of law. Article 39 of the Magna Carta talks about access to justice, and I think that we are all aware of the importance of access to justice and a good legal system. At the same time, we also have to be cognisant that the cost of legal aid in Northern Ireland is rising, is continuing to do so and is, indeed, spiralling out of control.

Given the cost of legal aid and its overall impact on the Justice budget, I will talk about it first. As early as the June monitoring round, very large pressures were being highlighted as a result of the cost of legal aid, and the Department was looking for savings in other areas to enable it to allocate additional funding. Over the year, the Department allocated £35·5 million of additional funding to the legal aid budget, including £13·2 million of the £29 million additional funding that the Executive provided as part of the October monitoring round. That money could have been used — some would argue that it should have been used — to fund other areas, including policing pressures and other front-line pressures facing the Department during the latter part of the 2014-15 financial year. At the Committee meeting on 10 December 2014, departmental officials confirmed that all budget areas had taken cuts to fund the legal aid pressures.

The cost of legal aid is unsustainable, given the reduction in budget that the Department is facing in 2015-16 and the impact that that will have on the provision of front-line services, which I will return to shortly. When he appeared at the Justice Committee meeting on 28 January this year, the Minister of Justice indicated that the key risk to the Department living within its budget next year is legal aid spending and said that radical action is clearly required. The Minister is proposing a range of further reforms, including a short-term exceptional measure to assist in managing the pressures on an in-year basis. That would involve a strictly controlled levy on bills to be paid, based on the amount required to live within the budget. The Assembly will take that decision annually. The Committee has asked for further details on that. It has not seen the detailed proposals, but when it does, it will obviously scrutinise them to make sure that the action will result in the immediate reductions that the Minister claims. Such a reduction in the cost of legal aid will, therefore, provide the time needed for the implementation of a longer-term reform, which, I think, everyone in the House believes is absolutely necessary.

Turing to the PSNI budget, which accounts for over 60% of the overall Justice budget — indeed, it is in the range of being seven times more than any other area of DOJ spending — the Chief Constable clearly outlined the impact that the in-year reductions in the budget would have. They included a severe detrimental impact on police resilience and capacity, including a significant impact on community policing, combating serious crime, legacy investigations and police recruitment plans for police officers and staff. The additional funding from the Executive at the October monitoring round was welcome and provided some assistance to the Chief Constable when making difficult decisions on priorities to ensure that he lives within his budget for 2014-15. The extra £20 million provided in the final budget allocation specifically for the PSNI will also enable the Chief Constable to undertake a level of recruitment and to mitigate to some extent the impact on front-line services during 2015-16. Again, that is to be welcomed.

Given that the police budget receives the bulk of Justice funding, the Committee has emphasised the importance of ongoing scrutiny of all areas of its spend to identify further efficiencies and opportunities to avail itself of shared services. Whilst the PSNI has identified and implemented a wide range of efficiency measures and savings, the need for the Department and the Chief Constable to continue to work closely together is of particular importance in this climate of reducing budgets. The Committee will continue to keep an eye on this area of the budget.

One other pressure that has emerged recently relates to hearing-loss claims from prison officers. Whilst the scale of the claims is unlikely to be anywhere near as high as those for police officers, the Department needs to give consideration to the best approach to handling the claims, given the criticism that has been directed at the handling of the legal and medical costs for the police claims.

I turn now to the Vote on Account, which provides the initial funding for 2015-16. According to the Department of Justice, its aim, amongst other things, is to prevent crime and reduce the risk of reoffending. The Department has already faced substantial pressures in-year, resulting in a range of reductions in funding that have clearly affected the delivery of front-line services, not just by the PSNI, as I have already highlighted, but projects delivered by the voluntary and community sector to address offending behaviour. My colleague Mr Frew, who is sitting along the Benches from me, has raised on a number of occasions the Railway Street Drug, Arrest Referral and Harm Reduction Service in Ballymena. NIACRO has been mentioned as well, and, of course, the work of the Probation Board, including the monitoring of sexual and violent offenders who are living in the community.

The Minister will continue to have to prioritise funding during 2015-16, and the Committee has raised concerns regarding the adoption of an approach to cutting spending that does not include a cost-benefit analysis and an analysis of the likely impact on and cost to other areas of the criminal justice system. By reducing funding to projects that aim to prevent offending behaviour and rehabilitate offenders, not only will the Department reduce the likelihood of achieving its overall aims and objectives for the justice system but it is likely to increase costs for the PSNI, the Courts and Tribunals Service and, ultimately, the Prison Service. The Committee has asked the Minister of Justice to revisit some of the funding proposals, and, again, we will continue to monitor saving plans and related impacts to ensure that budget allocations are not based on a false economy.

When the Minister attended the Committee meeting on 28 January, the budget for the Prison Service was discussed. I raised concerns regarding staffing levels, the use of overtime to cover staff shortages, the number of lockdowns, particularly in Maghaberry, and whether adequate funding is being made available to maintain safety levels for prison officers and prisoners. This morning, I noticed a reply to an Assembly question that I had tabled. It puts this in very stark view over the past five years. In 2010, 63 members of the Prison Service left with no new officers recruited; in 2011, 47 prison officers left the service and none was recruited; in 2012, 257 members left with 140 recruited; in 2013, 323 left and 170 were recruited; in 2014, 104 members left and none was recruited; in 2015, up until the 23 January, nine members of the Prison Service have left with no new recruits. Whilst we acknowledge that many left under the voluntary exit scheme, it highlights that we are running short on the number of prison officers that we have. That will obviously have an impact on the running of our prisons. The Minister indicated that staffing arrangements will be considered and that emerging funding pressures will be considered as part of the monitoring rounds, but it is, as I said, an area of particular concern, particularly given recent events at Maghaberry prison. The Committee will no doubt wish to discuss the situation with the director general of the Prison Service when she next attends the Committee.

Finally, I wish to mention the Desertcreat community safety training college capital project. The Department has indicated that an allocation of up to £53 million has been provided for that in the next financial year, dependent on agreeing the drawdown of unspent funds from the Treasury. Given that the four-year period provided for the Department of Justice to carry forward underspends is due to come to an end on 31 March 2015, it would be helpful if the Minister could provide an update on the position regarding discussions with the Treasury in relation to the underspend and end-year flexibility arrangements.

I finish by saying that I support the 2014-15 spring Supplementary Estimates and the 2015-16 Vote on Account.

Dominic Bradley (Social Democratic and Labour Party, Newry and Armagh)

Go raibh míle maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle, as an deis cainte sa díospóireacht seo. Beidh mise ag díriú le linn m'óráide ar an tionchur a bhéas ag na moltaí seo ar rialtas áitiúil. Ní bheidh mé ag tabhairt tacaíochta don leasú ar an phríomh-rún, agus déarfaidh mé a thuilleadh faoi sin ar ball. At the outset, I want to say that we will not support Mr Allister's amendment. I will deal with that later. I want initially to outline the very challenging financial position that local government faces at a time when the sector is expected to deliver major reform.

The reform of local government is one of the flagship commitments in the Executive's Programme for Government. The vision that the Executive set for local government is:

"a strong, dynamic local government creating communities that are vibrant, healthy, prosperous, safe, sustainable and have the needs of all citizens at their core."

A key element of local government reform is the transfer of a number of functions to local government. To ensure that that transfer was effective and sustainable and would not increase the burden on ratepayers, the Executive made a commitment that it would be rates-neutral at the point of transfer.

The Minister, Mr Durkan, is responsible for, among other things, planning, which is the largest single area of work that will transfer to councils in April. He has ensured that that commitment has been adhered to with respect to the costs that are associated with that function. That has meant excluding those costs from the effects of the substantial across-the-board reductions that have been applied to the Department's budget by the Executive, thereby creating even greater pressures on the remaining areas of DOE expenditure. However, not all Ministers have felt able to do that, which has left the new councils with the challenge of either having to find additional funding from within their budgets or to cut services to achieve savings from the outset. That has not fulfilled the collective commitment to local government on rates neutrality at the point of transfer. To compound the issue, the Executive's final Budget also applied significant reductions to the DOE baseline provision for a range of local government grant programmes.

Throughout the consultations that led to the draft Budget and the final Budget, the Minister pressed for grant programmes to be protected from across-the-board cuts and the amounts to be ring-fenced so that they could only be used to support local government at this time of great change for the sector. Unfortunately, the Minister's proposals were ignored, which left local councils in a position in which they did not have their funding protected at the point of transfer but, instead, face cuts to their central government funding at a time of significant upheaval.

There is particular concern about the implications of the final Budget on the rates support grant. Reductions to that grant will impact directly on those less well-off councils that have access to those grant payments to help make good the difference between their rates income and the money that they need to maintain parity of service provision with more wealthy councils. That would be a particularly unfair and unwelcome outcome at a time when councils are seeking to make the major organisational changes that are associated with local government reform and reorganisation. Indeed, whilst the additional £1·9 million allocation to the derating grant was welcome, it will not meet the expected pressure on that budget, which, even with that additional allocation, is anticipated to be in the region of £3 million.

Furthermore, a number of other grant programmes that were previously supported by DOE have been subject to across-the-board cuts in the final Budget, including grants that are provided by the Department to local government to carry out statutory obligations or important services on behalf of central government. Those include the emergency planning grant, which is used by councils to support their capacity to provide much-needed support to other agencies at times of emergencies, and we have all witnessed the valuable contribution that councils make in emergency situations, including localised flooding events.

Unfortunately, the decision to apply an arbitrary and substantial cut to what was already a relatively small grant sends the wrong message to the new councils about the value that the Executive place on their previous efforts in emergency situations.

In 2013, the Executive agreed to provide councils with a reform funding package of £17·8 million for 2013-15, with a further commitment of up to £30 million for rates convergence beyond 2015. Mr Speaker, as you will be aware, the £17·8 million commitment for 2013-15 covered only part of the bid for £38 million in costs, and local government has had to meet the balance. That has placed, as you would expect, significant pressure on councils to fund the shortfall of an estimated £20 million, during a time of challenging economic circumstances, in order to cover the costs of the work streams relating to reform that are inescapable and provide no cash-releasing benefit to the sector.

In addition, councils have identified a further £13 million of transition and transformation costs that will, potentially, be incurred over this and the next two financial years. That is adding to the financial pressures in local government created by the final Budget and the reductions in funding transferring with some functions. Those pressures would be difficult at any time, but, coming in the early years of operation of the new councils, the challenge is even greater. Some local government representatives have articulated the view that the Executive are less than committed to making local government reform work and are not providing councils with adequate resources to be able to fulfil the expectations that citizens have of the reform process. Indeed, they believe that the cumulative effect of all these cuts will be an increase in district rates or cuts to key services.

The Executive need to allocate an additional one-off sum to be paid to councils to mitigate the dual impacts of the one-off costs of reorganisation and the final Budget on Executive funding available for local government next year. In particular, the Executive need to allocate additional funding to support local government at this critical time: for example, £3 million to plug the gap in the derating grant for 2015-16; £2·77 million to restore the rate support grant to its current level of £18·32 million; and a contribution of a further £10 million towards the additional transition costs not covered by the Executive's local government reform funding package. Such sums would be allocated for the exclusive benefit of the new councils.

I do not think that it is any surprise that the SDLP will oppose the amendment proposed by Mr Allister, since we signed the petition of concern. I think that the amendment is a worrying interference in the work of the Equality Commission. The implication of it is that, if we disagree with the direction that the Equality Commission takes on a particular issue, we simply cut its budget. We should allow the Equality Commission to continue to do its legitimate work without such interference.

Mr Speaker, I will leave it at that. Go raibh míle maith agat, mar a dúirt mé cheana féin, as an deis cainte. Ní bheimid ag tacú leis an leasú ar an rún. As I said, we will not support the amendment.

Leslie Cree (UUP, North Down)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the two Supply resolutions that are being debated together today.

As usual, the spring Supplementary Estimates contain a lot of figures, and I appreciate that it was no easy task to collate the information. It is three years since Mr Bradley, as Deputy Chairperson of the Committee, brought a motion to the House that gave effect to approving the Committee's report on implementing a review of the financial process in Northern Ireland. The report was adopted and supported by all. It called on the then Minister of Finance and Personnel, in conjunction with relevant Executive colleagues, to implement the report's recommendations. It is a shame that nothing has moved on since then and that we are still labouring with a system that has long since passed its sell-by date. We will shortly enter the last year of the mandate of this Assembly, and I urge the Executive to press on with a proper system, despite the intransigence of the Education Minister.

The Finance Committee has taken evidence from departmental officials in the last few weeks. The Chairman has spoken about this, so I will not go into specifics on the work of the Committee in that regard. The Supply resolution seeks the Assembly's approval of the Executive's final spending plans for 2014-15, as detailed in the spring Supplementary Estimates. At this stage of the year, the Estimates have included all the changes from the monitoring rounds and are largely technical in nature. They require Assembly approval and are the final spending plans for this year.

For a variety of reasons, the Departments struggle throughout the year to spend their capital budgets. It seems prudent that some capital has been built into the Estimates by way of headroom to allow for flexibility at the year end. The return of capital to the Treasury would be most regrettable, bearing in mind the pressing needs in Northern Ireland at this time. DRD would receive £3 million for further investment for road structural maintenance, and DSD could receive £12 million for further investment in housing stock.

I also welcome DFP's condition that, should the spending not materialise, the Department's virement approval would not be given later to cover excess spending in other areas. The figures in the Supply resolution and the Budget Bill are the same as those in the corresponding spring Supplementary Estimates. They are both routine requirements at this stage of the financial year to obtain legislative Assembly authority for spending for the resources and associated cash requirements for the revised 2014-15 position. However, I ask the Minister for an assurance, which I am sure he will give me, that no unspent resources and capital, both conventional and financial transactions, will be returned to the Treasury this year.

The Vote on Account today is needed to ensure that the flow of cash continues to Departments, and it authorises spending of around 45% of the Budget, as the Minister confirmed. I have said before that it is not ideal to vote through an authorisation to spend almost half the Budget when we do not have the necessary details of that Budget to scrutinise. Until we have a better financial process, we have to use the existing system, poor as it is.

Mr Allister has tabled an amendment to change the Vote on Account so that the Equality Commission will have its budget reduced by £250,000, and this will presumably extend for the full year. I understand why the Equality Commission has been targeted as some of its decisions are, to say the least, bizarre. The Ashers bakery case is a classic example of Christian values being regarded by the commission as a bias, and the bakery has been prosecuted. On the other hand, I acknowledge that some of the commission's decisions are common sense — if sense be common — and the wearing of poppies was such a case. However, a petition of concern has been tabled so that the amendment will not be allowed, which, I have to say, is another decision that is a major concern to me. We hope to recognise that everyone in the Equality Commission is not guilty of illogical decisions, and many are hard-working. I believe that 10 members of staff were released only last week.

Another area that remains vague is the target for asset realisation. We started off the Budget with an expectation of £100 million for the four years. Perhaps the Minister will clarify what the current situation is. Anticipating a satisfactory response from him, I will be prepared to support the two resolutions today on behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party.

I turn now to the Main Estimate for the Northern Ireland judicial pension scheme. It is proposed to have the scheme in place by 1 April this year, and the secondary legislation is under way. Authority to spend under the scheme must be in place before that date, and we have little choice other than to approve the expenditure provision. The Supply resolution has allowed resources not exceeding £50,000 for the year ending 31 March 2016.

Judith Cochrane (Alliance, Belfast East)

I should like to start by saying that Alliance opposed the 2015-16 Budget at the relevant time, both at the Executive and here in the Assembly, as we do not believe that it is sufficiently strategic. However, the Budget has now been agreed by a majority and we do not believe that we should seek to undermine it at this stage.

Alliance will, however, oppose Mr Allister's amendment to remove money allocated to the Equality Commission. It is clear from his comments that he tabled that not to talk about the Budget but simply as an opportunity to give his twopence worth about the fact that they have taken a case against Ashers bakery. Whether or not you agree with the Equality Commission taking that case, it does have an important role here in Northern Ireland, and to seek to punish it because you do not agree with it could undermine its important work on equality issues. Of course, there are other court cases that are taken with public funding, such as on the gay blood ban, and there is no suggestion from Mr Allister that funding should be removed from the Department of Health for that. Ultimately the courts will decide if they got it wrong, and lessons will hopefully be learned on all sides of each argument. Of course, Mr Speaker, as you said, today is not the day to debate that, nor the electioneering clause — sorry, the conscience clause — so I will move on.

Today's Supply resolution and Vote on Account motions authorise the use of that money by the various Northern Ireland Departments and public bodies. They do not, however, lay any groundwork for the radical reform that is required to deliver better outcomes for everyone in Northern Ireland. I ask the Minister how the proposed spending in front of us today will begin the process of making our public finances any more sustainable. We know that the forthcoming Budget for 2016-2020 is likely to see an even smaller block grant in the UK as the Government continue to cut public spending. At the same time, we have the potential added pressure of locally funding a lower level of corporation tax. Of course, we want the anticipated benefits of devolved corporation tax, but our Budget prioritises health and education at the expense of the economy. How we are going to be able to fund the change in corporation tax if we do not reform the most glaringly obvious area remains to be seen.

There is still no real challenge towards reforming inefficiencies in the areas of health and education. We know that those areas are inefficient, even just through high-level benchmarking of costs compared to other jurisdictions, yet the large degree of protection that they have been given creates less incentive for reform. As I said before, Alliance would not have given the degree of protection to the Department of Education, although we do support investing more resources directly into schools, but we think that that can be achieved by better use of the Department's budget in the first place. More money is already spent on education in Northern Ireland than in neighbouring jurisdictions, but less money is invested directly in the pupils. Part of that is due to the divided system that we have, as well as the administration.

The focus for the Department of Health also needs to be on reform, not just simply using resources to cover over gaps here and there in a sticking-plaster approach. The numerous reports that have already shown where there is significant scope for reform in the health sector now need to be driven forward through investing in rationalising the way services are provided and in further prevention measures. Reforms to the estate are also required, but there needs to be serious political commitment to do that. We cannot expect people to come forward with ideas for savings and then respond with political outrage because it has happened on our doorstep.

Tomorrow we will also debate welfare reform. Notwithstanding the fact that we have already lost millions of pounds in penalties due to the impasse, there will no doubt be a number of issues raised about what more can be done to support our most vulnerable and the money that is required to do that — things like funding an independent advice sector for those seeking to claim benefits, or the need for resources for skills development for those who are trying to move into work. We cannot fund things like that until we take the tough decisions needed for radical reform. That includes things like revenue raising and tackling the costs of division, for example, in our teacher training, an area where, when proposals are made to reform, the bigger parties retreat into their trenches and seek to continue segregation. We have no prospect of funding adequate font-line services, addressing the building pressures or funding a lower rate of corporation tax until we face up to those challenges.

Gregory Campbell (DUP, East Londonderry)

I begin by apologising for the lateness of my arrival today, the reason for which can be found on the Order Paper under question 10 to the Department for Employment and Learning. It indicates a jobs fair, which I helped to announce in Limavady at 10.00 am this morning. However, I will not go down that route.

I want to concentrate the majority of my remarks on the amendment proposed by Mr Allister. It concentrates of course on the Equality Commission. Members and the general public will be aware that the Equality Commission has been remiss in carrying out its tasks for a number of years. There are a number of questions, one of which is this: why should politicians have to negotiate with, expose in the glare of publicity or meet the Equality Commission to get it to do its job properly? The answer is of course that we should not have to do that, but we do.

The question that Mr Allister poses is one of whether this is the way to get the Equality Commission to do its job properly. I would contend that it is not. The Equality Commission and indeed its predecessors were engaged in a number of failings between 1985 and 2003, when Mr Allister had walked away from confronting both the commission and its predecessors. In that 18-year period, he left confrontation not just with Sinn Féin but with equality bodies. Of course, some of the rest of us kept on and did not walk away. I am sure that we will come back to that at a future date.

The amendment gets down to a cash transaction; a punishment for the Equality Commission through OFMDFM. Yet Mr Allister does not allude to the fact that, in the Finance Minister's statement, there is already a reduction in the money that is going to the Equality Commission. Hopefully when we get the vote through and get this done, that reduction will be a factual one. It is a reality of a reduction; not a press release or a headline, but a real reduction. Mr Allister preferred to go down the press release route to get a headline that he knew could not achieve anything. He knew when he tabled this that there would automatically be a petition of concern. He knew that, but he went ahead anyway.

I have no objection to a proposition being put, even in the knowledge of a petition of concern, because sometimes you have to do what is right whether or not the objective will be achieved. If Mr Allister was saying that, then fine, we could live with that, but that would bring us on to another contention —

Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice, North Antrim)

Will the Member give way?

Gregory Campbell (DUP, East Londonderry)

Yes, I will indeed.

Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice, North Antrim)

I do not quite understand why the Member is smarting. He talks about the fact that there is a reduction in the Equality Commission's budget. That is true of a number of bodies. It is not specific to the issue that I have been seeking to focus on. The purpose of my amendment is to give a platform for people to focus on that specific issue and to have a tangible impact on that. I must say that I am surprised that the Member takes objection to that. I would have thought that he was onside with that issue. It leaves me wondering why he is smarting about it.

Gregory Campbell (DUP, East Londonderry)

Well, if exposing Mr Allister's proposition to the wider public is "smarting", I am happy to be smarting.

This is what we have today: a proposition that cannot be passed. He knew when he tabled it that it could not be passed. I am glad that he concedes now that there is a reduction in the Equality Commission's budget. There is one; a factual one, not a press release or anticipated one that can never become a reality.

Mr Allister arrived in the Assembly some four years ago, immediately on the heels of 10 years of 50:50 recruitment in the police, which the Equality Commission supported every single year. I have checked to see if there was an amendment. No, there was not an amendment because it could not achieve its objective, just as today's cannot achieve its objective. Mr Allister came into the Assembly and there was an Equality Commission-supported act of discrimination against my community and his. It did not provoke an amendment then or the year after. Mr Allister mentioned in his speech the staffing of the Equality Commission, and he was quite right. Some of us have raised that issue year on year, both when Mr Allister was here and in the years when he was not, when he had gone off and walked away from the confrontation. Yes, we raised those issues and will continue so to do. Was there an amendment then? Was there an amendment last year that, on the basis of the imbalance of staff in the Equality Commission, there should be a reduction? No, there was not. Was there one the year before? No, there was not. Was there one the first year Mr Allister appeared back from the wilderness? No, there was not. Nothing. The man was silent.

The proposition here is that we have to deal with the Equality Commission, and, thankfully, OFMDFM and the Finance Minister have looked at the general Budget and concluded that there is, as has been alluded to, a need for a general reduction and that the Equality Commission should not be excluded from that general reduction. Therefore, we must turn our minds to what action needs to be taken post the vote today and post the Vote on Account and beyond the headlines and the press releases to get a public body to do its duty and to get it to stop doing what it should not be doing. It should not be doing what Mr Allister, myself and others have talked about. It should not have been doing those things down through the years. This is not the way to deal with the Equality Commission. That body is wrong, and it needs to be confronted about the wrong and its error. It needs to be met and rationalised with and needs to have its budget reduced, as the Finance Minister has succeeded in achieving.

Máirtín Ó Muilleoir (Sinn Féin, Belfast South)

Mo bhuíochas as an deis cainte inniu. Tempting as it is to get between Mr Campbell and Mr Allister, I think that I will resist that and focus on the Budget, except to say that we are perhaps gilding the lily to refer to the Equality Commission as anti-Christian. The bits of the Bible that I read are very strong on equality. Of course, I could be reading the wrong parts, but, for now, I think that we can stand over the work that the Equality Commission is doing.

I have three quick points on the spring Supplementary Estimates that are before us today, as well as the 2015-16 Budget and Vote on Account. The Minister only referred to the past briefly. Sometimes the past gets us in trouble in here, but he referred to the so-called welfare reform fine from London of £100 million as a loss to public services. It is important to put on record that not all of us agree with that, because we do not think that it is a straight equation that that £100 million would have, in particular, gone to those in need, would have been spent on the economy and would have built up lives, families and communities. It is not a straight equation. I mention that because I hope that we are united in the Chamber against the ideology of austerity and that there is no hankering after that. We have decided to mitigate the worst effects of the so-called welfare reform that is coming down the tracks so that we can ensure that we eschew, rebut and refute the philosophy and ideology of austerity.

I want to focus on the Budget and the figures in front of us. I commend the Ministers on the efforts made in very challenging times when, as the Minister said, London has cut the Budget by £1·5 billion since 2011. Efforts were made by all Departments to focus our funding on growing the economy, creating jobs and trying to move the community confidently forward, and I think that we will see the rewards of that.

I am of the opinion that we are in recovery. I see, this morning, that Ulster Bank economists are saying that the economy is stumbling, so it is clearly not a self-assured recovery; but I believe that we are in economic recovery. The big challenge for us, as a Chamber, an Executive and an Assembly, is to ensure that the steps we take in the time ahead push us farther into recovery, build the economy and create jobs. There is a danger, and I know that the Minister is aware of it, that when you introduce cuts in such an atmosphere you may damage confidence. I disagree with my colleague Mr Ó Brollacháin in that regard: these cuts are imposed on us by London.

That is the last point I wish to make, and it is well made by greater economic authorities than me. It is the opinion of Wolf, the opinion of Stiglitz, the opinion of Krugman and the opinion of Piketty that austerity, and the ideology of austerity, actually damages an economy.

To build confidence in the time ahead, we need to make sure that the moneys we have allocated in this 2015-16 Budget, in particular regarding the Committee that I am on, the Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, gets down to our businesses and attracts investment as quickly as possible. I think we have done that.

My final point is that Minister Foster will brief the Finance Committee on Wednesday, but I think that there has been a real effort, within that, to give comfort to the tourism sector. Those of us who were briefed on it know that NI tourism, in particular, was very worried. We managed to work hard, I presume, around the Executive table, to negotiate a much better deal for tourism, and I think that that has to be at the heart of the economic recovery of which I spoke.

Nelson McCausland (DUP, Belfast North)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. While the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure has one of the smallest departmental budgets in the Assembly, it has an important remit nevertheless, which covers a range of activities that impact on the daily lives and social and economic well-being of everyone living in Northern Ireland.

The Committee has actively scrutinised the changes in the DCAL budget position throughout the year, subsequent to the monitoring rounds. I have to say that the Committee has experienced some difficulty in so doing, and in having access to monitoring round papers in a timely fashion. This is an issue that has been raised with the Minister and the Department. However, members have done their best in the circumstances.

The most significant change in the core departmental provision is the £62 million that was returned during the year because of issues around the stadium redevelopment programme. As Members are aware, there was an issue around perceived state aid, and then there was the situation around the recent judicial review of the Casement Park planning application, which saw the Environment Minister's planning approval overturned. It is good to see the work that has been done at Ravenhill and Windsor Park, but there has been a substantial delay to the commencement of the redevelopment project at Casement, and funding that should have been used has had to be returned. The Committee has been briefed on the issues involved, and the Department and the GAA are talking about a new planning application, although, as that involves an application, and the consultation around that, it will probably take most of this year.

Members expressed some concern regarding the absence of any anticipatory work that might have been carried forward to address the underspend, and there was also concern about the implications for the work on the subregional football stadia in due course, which may be put back a little because of that. The Committee also voiced its concern that the money for the project should not be wasted and that delay on Casement should not impact on the progress of the Executive-approved regional stadium development programme, which includes, as I said already, the football subregional stadium element.

During the year, the Department made a number of successful resource and capital bids through monitoring rounds for the UK City of Culture legacy. That refers to Londonderry's year as UK City of Culture in 2013.

The year was, indeed, a great success for the city, and the Committee was extremely supportive of the Department's work on the matter. The Department is keen to ensure that there is a lasting legacy from the events of 2013, as, indeed, is the Committee. However, the Committee has not always been clear about how those bids are part of a fully considered and planned legacy strategy. The bids have brought additional resources to the core departmental arts and cultural policy business areas. While that is to be welcomed, the Committee continues to scrutinise the use of those resources.

The Department has also made a number of successful monitoring round bids for resource and capital under the promotion of equality and tackling poverty and social exclusion (PETPSE) and Together: Building a United Community (T:BUC). The Committee is supportive of both bidding vehicles. However, again, the Committee has not always been clear that those bids are part of a clear, planned strategy. Members see the value of the individual bids, but they often seem to be spontaneous, rather than part of an overall strategic approach.

The Committee has considered the increased provision for National Museums Northern Ireland over the year and is supportive of bids that have been made through monitoring rounds for necessary work to maintain the NMNI estate. The Committee believes that it is important to ensure that the fabric of our museums is fit for purpose and provides an inviting environment for visitors. Recently, the Committee visited the Ulster Museum, and members were pleased to see how the facility is being developed as a cultural and educational resource.

The Committee remains very supportive of the departmental bids for resources through the monitoring rounds for libraries, and it supports the efforts that are being made to ensure that the library estate is well maintained and that libraries remain open against the current difficult financial backdrop. However, the Committee is keen to ensure that the value of libraries to our communities is not forgotten, and members support the Department and the Executive's work to make libraries a key element of any community renewal.

Members will also be aware that the Committee has been vocal in its support for the Ulster Orchestra. The Committee is particularly pleased that the orchestra has received half a million pounds through the recent January monitoring round. That alleviates its immediate financial difficulties. However, the Committee appreciates that that is a short-term measure and that work must be done to secure a long-term and sustainable future for the orchestra. The Committee is keen that this issue should continue to receive the Department and the Executive's attention. Members of the Committee right across the board place a considerable value on the Ulster Orchestra as one of the core elements in our cultural infrastructure as a region within the United Kingdom, and it is important that the support is there for the Ulster Orchestra.

The Committee is also supportive of the additional funding flowing from the recent January monitoring round for NI Screen and Cinemagic. Members are aware of the important work on skills development that that funding will support, and it is clear that the creative industries, including film and television production and digital technologies, will be vital to the transformation of our economy.

Sport NI has also received additional funding of over £4 million from the original planned Budget position. That change reflects successful bids in monitoring rounds over the year for resource and capital, including sports-related bids under PETPSE and T:BUC, as well as for the UK City of Culture legacy for the greater north-west. The legacy bids include resource and capital, one example being the north-west sports village. However, a significant proportion of the figure — over £1·5 million — is in the form of accruals from the previous financial year.

In conclusion, the Committee has been largely supportive of DCAL bids during the past year. In considering the way forward, members stress the importance of making sure that the necessary funds continue to be made available to DCAL so that it can continue to deliver its programmes and to conduct its functions effectively. On behalf of the Committee, I support the motion.

Michaela Boyle (Sinn Féin, West Tyrone)

Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I apologise in advance of speaking to the House today; I am in the process of losing my voice. Some Members might be glad to hear that.

By agreeing the Supply, Estimates and Vote on Account, we are focused on building a just, fair and equal economy for people of the North and the island. Like all of you, I am committed to building a society and economy of opportunity, prosperity and fairness. We are at an economic crossroads, and it is time to choose what we want our future to be; whether we want to remain wedded to the Westminster austerity experiment or whether we want to carve out our own economic future, building our strength as an island economy. British control of our economy has ensured that it is our people who have the lowest household income in comparison with Britain and the highest rates of unemployment and emigration. Currently, emigration is at its highest since the 1950s. Our people deserve better.

We are caught in an austerity trap, and our people are caught in a poverty trap. Gone are the days when poverty was about scarcity; today, poverty is a direct result of economic policy and inequality. In our case, it is poverty driven by decisions made in Westminster. As I have said in the House before, the good news is that there is a way out of the austerity trap, the cuts agenda and the obscenity of child poverty and food banks. We can, together, secure the full financial powers to tackle inequality, promote competitiveness and allow businesses to thrive. We can take control of our welfare budget and policy, which is a powerful tool to support jobs and reduce inequality. With the powers over our economy, we can ensure that we use that wealth to boost the economy, create jobs and support public spending whilst reducing the deficit through faster economic growth and increased revenues, not spending cuts.

Westminster promises only continued poverty and austerity, but, locally, we can seize the opportunity to do things differently. In an overall commitment to fiscal responsibility, we could collectively provide a credible and sustainable alternative to the current British Government's fiscal plan and place a greater focus on supporting growth and tackling inequality. We can prioritise our choices in many ways. For example, by removing constraints imposed on us, we could increase our investment in infrastructure. Every £100 million in capital investment supports thousands of local jobs. Westminster's austerity policies are harming our people, economy and public services and they have put them under intense pressure. We are not, as the Tories say, all in this together. It is the most vulnerable and disadvantaged — those who need the most support — who are hit the hardest. We, in Sinn Féin, stood firm, and we can be proud that we have protected our most vulnerable and disadvantaged people from Westminster's attack on the welfare state. We will stand in opposition to the brutal spending cuts and assault on pay and conditions, which is harming families, particularly the most vulnerable. We will stand firm against the cost of living squeeze in our commitment to protect front-line services and to a living wage. We will stand firm in our commitment to building a better business climate.

Politics, North and South, is undergoing the biggest shake-up since partition. In the interests of all our citizens, we must seize the historic opportunity that exists now for change. We need to grow our way to recovery. Any recovery must be a recovery for all, not merely those at the top. To develop a prosperous society, we must sustain decent public services that are accessible to all, including rural Ireland. To protect vulnerable citizens, we need a good, strong economy. There now exists an unprecedented opportunity to transform the political landscape on the island, North and South. Collectively, we can achieve by making progressive policy changes, mapping a way forward and taking power back from Westminster.

Our focus must be on building and rebuilding our public health service, eradicating housing waiting lists and creating meaningful jobs with decent terms and conditions. There is no greater obstacle to progressive change than austerity. Sinn Féin believes that the North must have secure economic power from Westminster to steer a different course from Tory-driven ideology, to leave behind austerity policies and to actively work to revive the island's recovery and economy.

Fearghal McKinney (Social Democratic and Labour Party, Belfast South)

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to today's debate. I will focus on health, social services and public safety. As the Minister and all of us are aware, there are genuine and many pressures on the health service. Throughout the past number of months, I have expressed the SDLP's concern about the financial allocation given to the health service. Emanating from those fiscal shortfalls is the fact that severe and intolerable pressures are being witnessed in the provision of health and social care here. Once again, we only have to look at the recent cases, less reported, but still existing, of pressure in our emergency departments. That reflects the fact that they are not sufficient to maintain a high quality of patient care in order to deal with patient flow and provide that high-quality care. I will deal with some of the patient flow issues later.

In the past few months, we have also seen further evidence of consistent breaches of performance targets in A&E with regard to four and 12-hour waiting times. We have the worst record in all of the UK for meeting four-hour targets. We have seen the direct consequences of that with the curtailment of elective care provision, which still has to play itself out, which has caused delays in surgery and treatment and, in turn, left many patients needlessly suffering. We cannot continue to ignore the issues involving our accident and emergency provision that have surfaced during the past number of years. They are all too commonplace in a health and social care system that is buckling at its knees.

I reiterate, once again, that the invest-to-save plan of reform at the heart of the health-care system, Transforming Your Care, has not, by any stretch of the imagination, been properly funded. There has been a lack of shift left in expenditure into the community. That has resulted in very little meaningful outcome. I have been saying that, the SDLP has been saying that and it is becoming increasingly clear that more people are beginning to accept that narrative, none more so than Liam Donaldson, who conducted his most recent review into the health and social care system here. He said that the work of TYC is not properly planned or funded and that it has led GPs to take matters into their own hands by way of GP federations. He also said that the review team heard TYC referred to as "Transferring Your Care", "Postponing Your Care" and even "Taking Your Chances". His report states:

"Carers see it as a euphemism for dumping work onto them; general practitioners likewise."

Sir Liam Donaldson concludes:

"Transforming Your Care is simply not being implemented."

He goes on to say, and I think it is worth reading these issues into the record, that commissioning is underpowered and, effectively, not working. We will vote for money for the health service today, but unless there is some sort of radical change in the system, we will not be spending money wisely; we will not be spending money well; and we will not be spending money consistent with patient need. I want to conclude on Mr Donaldson's report on the issue. I think the health system here should be embarrassed that this point could ever be asked or raised as an issue in a report by someone as eminent as Sir Liam Donaldson. The report asks, "Who runs the health and social care system in Northern Ireland?"

"The lack of clarity about who is in charge is a major problem for Northern Ireland's care system. The difficulty is not that there is no figurehead, but that strategic leadership does not have the visibility of other systems. Without a clear leader, progress is piecemeal and change is hesitant and not driven through".

Once again, we can vote money through today, but is there a guarantee that it will be spent well?

Two other reports have come out in the last few weeks. Some people here say, "Sure it is happening over in England", almost as if we should blame it on a general failing here and in England. The reason why it is happening here is that we have adopted some of the same policy considerations. That is why it is happening here and in England. The Westminster Public Accounts Committee has done some significant examination of the issues, and it says that radical change is needed in its system to the way health care is provided, including:

"making better use of community and primary care services to reduce pressure on hospitals."

Where have we heard that before? We heard it here about Transforming Your Care, but there is no money available to make it happen.

The Committee said that the health service:

"was 'out of balance' ... because community and primary care services were not working well which places pressure on hospitals."

Where have we heard that before? We have heard it here before and experience it here every day. Once again, we will vote through money today for the health service, but we cannot guarantee that it will be spent well, certainly not on the basis of policy provisions copied from the rest of the country.

Finally, an additional external reference is that the King's Fund think tank referred to the fact that NHS organisation was disastrous:

"Radical changes to the way the NHS in England is organised have been disastrous and distracted from patient care ... People in the NHS focused on rearranging the deckchairs rather than the core business of improving patient care."

That is slightly different language, but, once again, the direction of travel is the same. We have not invested in the community side, which is the side that can take the weight off less expensively and make provision for people closer to their home, yet we have stripped out on the hospital side, leading to two pressures there.

All say the same thing, which is that the community side of health care is not being properly funded. We must reject the Minister's claims that the crisis that we face is not unique to here. In essence, it is, because we have followed the UK path. We must also look at whether the projected £113 million in trusts' efficiency savings are counterstrategic to the TYC plan. Even DUP Members have joined campaigns on, for example, Dalriada Hospital and the Bangor minor injuries unit, although they managed to overturn that decision, and in other areas. We have seen consistency among political opinion here on the need for funding in the community side.

It is pivotal that we examine whether decisions made by the trusts to save money will have further negative consequences down the line. We must get assurances that any decision taken complies with section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 to ensure that proper consultations and screenings are implemented and that patient needs are fully appreciated and taken on board.

We have talked before here about the opportunities for efficiency savings in the service. There is significant wastage. Some £50 million was spent on bank and agency staff. There were 360,000 cancellations of hospital appointments by patients and the hospital system itself, and we have seen how we had to reach out to the private sector to perform operations as a result, which is funding them twice. However, we have now run out of road even in that context, as I reflected earlier; we have simply had to cancel elective operations in circumstances of extreme stress.

One of the other issues is patient flow. The Health Committee is examining workforce planning and, even at this very early stage, has discovered that the hospital health system does not know how many people are employed in GP surgeries. It does not do a real-time analysis of the number of people waiting each day for particular surgeries. If the system does not understand the flow through the system, how can it run a business at all? You need, fundamentally, to understand the flows in any organisation to be able to cope, particularly in the health system.

Most concerning is the fact that the block grant from Westminster is continuously being constrained, and, as we go into the next Budget, that will ultimately limit the possibility of doing something proactive to deal with the pressures facing the system. Ultimately, it is imperative that we begin to realise the root causes of the pressure on our health service and that we have a properly financed, measured and strategically focused reform plan in place that will facilitate meaningful outcomes to ensure that we have a health and social care system that is fit for the 21st century.

As we make decisions today, I reiterate that we can allocate money, but we will not know that it will fundamentally put the patient first. We need to have assurances in that regard.

Mike Nesbitt (UUP, Strangford)

First, I will make some comments in my capacity as Chairman of the Committee for the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister.

In-year, the Committee was briefed by the Department on its monitoring round returns before they were submitted to the Department of Finance and Personnel. We also received written and oral updates on the outcome of the monitoring rounds, but, unfortunately, the papers for the briefings for the June and October monitoring rounds were received just a short time in advance of the start of the relevant Committee meetings. That is a trend and an unwelcome one at that. The late provision of papers does not allow members time to consider them fully in preparation for the briefing, and it could impede our ability to fulfil our statutory role effectively, not least that of scrutiny. It was good to see an improvement for the January monitoring round when the papers were provided early. I hope that that continues during 2015.

It must be noted that the Executive applied a 2·1% reduction in resource budgets in June and, at that point, signalled that a further 2·3% would be required in October. That equated to an in-year reduction of £3 million to the Department’s budget.

A key focus area for the Committee was funding for victims. There appears to have been a lack of clarity on the actual baseline for the Victims and Survivors Service for 2014-15. The service told the Committee that it had received a letter in May 2014 advising of an opening budget of £11·685 million. However, OFMDFM officials advised that the opening allocation was £10 million, with the intention of restoring the baseline to £11·3 million through in-year monitoring. An inescapable bid of £1·3 million was not met in June monitoring, which raised concerns about the ability of the Victims and Survivors Service to deliver its programmes. The allocations of £1·3 million subsequently made in each of the October and January monitoring rounds were, therefore, welcome. In addition, although the Victims and Survivors Service will still be required to deliver savings in the coming year, the extra £3 million allocation in the 2015-16 Budget and the confirmation that the baseline for the service will be above that for 2014-15 are also welcome. The Committee notes that the Victims and Survivors Service will take measures, such as moving premises, to save money. I hope that that will help to maximise the funding available for programmes.

Members will be aware that funding for the historical institutional abuse inquiry had been done via the in-year monitoring rounds. In that regard, £4·3 million was allocated to the HIA inquiry in June. While the Executive had committed to providing funding for the HIA inquiry, the allocation of £5 million in the 2015-16 Budget was, nevertheless, welcome.

Other allocations to OFMDFM within the year included £3·5 million for Together: Building a United Community in June. The Committee heard that that would be used in a number of ways, including central good relations funding, urban villages and race hate interventions. In addition, £3·2 million was allocated to Delivering Social Change in January, which, together with £2·1 million identified by OFMDFM, enabled transfers to be made to the Health, Education, Social Development and Environment Departments to help to deliver the signature projects.

The vast majority of easements declared by the Department related to capital funding for the Maze/Long Kesh site, Ebrington Barracks and Crumlin Road Gaol, with some £8 million being returned to the centre. The Department did not return any non-ring-fenced resource funding.

At this point, I will make some comments in a personal capacity, perhaps beginning with the easements and the Maze/Long Kesh. As we know, there is no activity on that development site beyond health and safety and the barest activity that is required. The development of the site appears to remain at risk because of an ideological issue over a party that has failed to persuade the people of Northern Ireland that it is a good idea to build a peace-building centre at the Maze. Let me make a distinction between supporting the concept of a peace centre, which the Ulster Unionists do, and locating it at the Maze, which we believe is the most toxic piece of land you can imagine for such a project.

No activity means we are not delivering the promised 5,000 jobs — 5,000 jobs. We are not delivering the hundreds of millions of pounds of investment because of this ideological hang-up over a peace centre. Yet, for three months in the tail end of last year at Stormont House we talked and negotiated about how to deal with the past, and we came to an agreement in the Stormont House Agreement on dealing with the past. It has many elements. A peace-building and conflict resolution centre is not one of them, so why are we not going ahead with the development of this strategic site called Maze/Long Kesh, with the hundreds of millions of pounds to be invested and the 5,000 jobs to be delivered for our people?

I mentioned at some length the Victims and Survivors Service. It is a matter of deep regret that there was not enough funding for the service in the last financial year. It is a matter of further regret that those who suffered most were the bereaved, because they have a particular desire for two programmes, neither of which was adequately funded over the last financial year. One is respite breaks. The bereaved like to get away; indeed, to maintain good mental health and well-being, the bereaved need to get away. Yet, despite having a reasonable expectation that they could avail themselves of a short break — based on years of delivery, not necessarily from the victims service but, before that, from the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund — they were denied through a lack of funding, as was education and training, the other programme that is of particular appeal to the bereaved of our Troubles.

Also, victims' groups found themselves disadvantaged through a lack of funding — for example Phoenix, which looks after those who put on a uniform and put themselves in harm's way to protect their families, communities and, indeed, this entire country from the threat of terrorist violence. Phoenix in Armagh. Phoenix in the Minister's own constituency of Strangford. Phoenix in Newtownards, which had, you might argue, the cruel and unusual punishment of finding that it ticked all the boxes to qualify for funding only to be told there was no money in the bank account and funding could not be made available, even though the rules said it qualified, was entitled and was due the money.

It is good that the historical institutional abuse inquiry survived. I know that many victims were very upset when the First Minister warned at the time of June monitoring that, if money was not found, the inquiry might need to be wound up. That was not a message that victims who have waited decades for the inquiry needed to hear, but the Budget line is there for 2015-16, so let us welcome that. I do not want to get into the judicial review of the inquiry and whether or not it makes sufficient legal advice available to victims, because I understand that the Department is appealing that decision, but I note the words of the junior Minister in the House some weeks ago. He warned that that could quadruple the costs of the inquiry and, once again, threatened that it might not even see itself through to its conclusion. That must not be allowed to happen. The historical institutional abuse inquiry must be allowed to finish its work.

I note the words from the Sinn Féin Benches about opposing austerity. It is a fact that every party that has a reasonable chance of occupying 10 Downing Street on 8 May says austerity will continue through the remaining years of this decade, so it is a fact that we will have to face up to.

Whether it is Labour, the Liberal Democrats or some combination of the three main parties —

Christopher Hazzard (Sinn Féin, South Down)

That is right.

Mike Nesbitt (UUP, Strangford)

— austerity will continue. I give way to Mr Hazzard.

Christopher Hazzard (Sinn Féin, South Down)

I thank the Member for giving way. I was not actually asking for you to give way. I was just saying that you are right that we should be breaking the link with Westminster because austerity is always going to be the dish of the day.

Mike Nesbitt (UUP, Strangford)

I thank the Member. I did not realise that he was speaking from a sedentary position. I thought that he actually wanted me to give way. I say this to the Member: if we break with Westminster, we lose £10 billion in a block grant. You want to protect the most vulnerable by taking £10 billion off them. It is nonsense economics.

Let us also keep a focus on debt. Mr Hazzard may not be aware of this, but Her Majesty's United Kingdom Government currently spend more on servicing debt — not paying back the debt, but paying the interest on debt —

Mitchel McLaughlin (Speaker, South Antrim)

The Member's time is up.

Mike Nesbitt (UUP, Strangford)

— than they spend on services in both Wales and Northern Ireland.

Michelle McIlveen (DUP, Strangford)

I will speak on behalf of the Education Committee. The Committee has endeavoured to track the changes in departmental spending that have manifested themselves in the 2014-15 spring Supplementary Estimates. As we are at the end of a Budget cycle, there is now quite a large deviation between the original planned Department of Education spending and the projected final outcome. The deviations, in the case of Education, are largely owing to significant allocations of additional resource, which, of course, is welcome.

It is a useful exercise to do an analysis of what Departments have achieved against what was promised. I note that the 2015-16 Budget document set out, in the case of many Departments, how resource reductions will affect core departmental staffing levels. The Department of Education did not include this information. I suggest that, in future, Estimates and Budget documents should set out staffing levels in all Departments in a consistent way. That would allow the House to compare actual performance with the promises made. The lack of consistency is counterproductive to effective scrutiny.

In the present financial year, the Committee has reviewed the monitoring round information and questioned the Department on its spending. On resources, there have been only a small number of changes. I understand that the Department expects to spend close to 100% of its resource allocation by the end of the year, which, on the face of it, is good news. The Department had a large capital budget in 2014-15 of around £182 million, which is about £70 million more than in previous years. There were some limited adjustments in-year owing to asset sales. The Committee has noted increases in end-year capital spending surges in recent years. As with resource, I understand that the Department expects to spend close to its full capital budget in 2014-15.

In addition to how much money is being spent, the Committee's concern in respect of capital has also focused on what money is being spent on. During the year, the Committee saw quite significant changes in the capital plan. Although members welcomed increased spending on minor works, the Committee was concerned to note continuing delays with major works; that is, new school builds. The House has greatly welcomed a number of announcements regarding the advancement in planning of new school builds. However, Members would be surprised by how few of these announcements have turned into spades-in-the-ground projects. This is of concern to the Committee and, of course, to school communities anticipating movement on projects. It is incredibly frustrating. Members also noted with concern delays in the Lisanelly project, with spending being somewhat reduced or deferred and a completion date of 2020 now being indicated.

On the savings delivery plan, yet again I have to report that the Committee is not able to comment on 2013-14 performance let alone provide any update on 2014-15. In 2012-13, the Education Department's savings achievement was the same as the average for other Departments. I should point out, however, that, unlike most other Departments, the Department of Education also altered its savings delivery plan targets in 2012-13. As Members are also well aware, DE, uniquely, does not participate in the DFP monitoring of savings delivery plans, and I, again, record the Committee's dissatisfaction about that.

Turning to the pensions issue, the House is aware that an actuarial revaluation of teachers' pensions liabilities has identified an additional recurrent cost of around £38 million in 2015-16. I understand that that will be met from a central fund in that year but will also have to be met for a further three years, possibly from the Department of Education's budget. Obviously, clarification of that would be welcomed.

(Mr Principal Deputy Speaker [Mr Newton] in the Chair)

That brings us to the Vote on Account for the 2015-16 Budget. On behalf of the Committee, I will mention one key issue, the funding for schools. The Committee was pleased to learn that the anticipated reduction in the aggregated schools budget of £78·7 million is to be offset by an increase of £80 million in 2015-16. That news is welcome, and it appears to mean that the projected spending reductions of hundreds of thousands of pounds in some schools seems to have been avoided, if not partially, at least for now. I have written to the Education Minister to urge him to put the record straight in respect of school budgets and to provide clarity for schools as matter of urgency.

I hope that the greatly increased funding for the voluntary exit scheme in the public sector, negotiated in the Stormont House Agreement, will allow some breathing space for schools and will result in a period during which principals can plan sensibly and arrange changes in resources and staffing in line with school GCSE and A-level cycles. A key point to consider in all of this is that the financial year does not align with the academic year, causing uncertainty when budgets fluctuate.

The 2015-16 budget was always going to be difficult. It is, perhaps, not quite yet the sea change in education in Northern Ireland that was initially proposed. It is clear, however, that in the medium, if not the very short, term hard decisions will be required in education. The Committee holds the view that if changes are to be transparent and sensible, it is vital that all relevant information is made available to stakeholders, particularly schools, and to the Committee for Education in a manner that allows analysis and time for consideration and amendment, and that has certainly not been the case to date.

Robin Newton (DUP, Belfast East)

As Question Time begins at 2.00 pm, I suggest that the House takes its ease until then. The debate will continue after Question Time, when the next Member to speak will be Chris Hazzard.

The debate stood suspended.

Oral Answers to Questions — Education

Tom Buchanan (DUP, West Tyrone)

1. Mr Buchanan asked the Minister of Education why his Department sent warning letters to eleven primary schools that allegedly provided tuition for transfer tests. (AQO 7505/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

The Department has written to a number of primary schools following reports that schools may have been involved in coaching pupils for unregulated tests during core teaching time. It is not accurate to describe the letters as "warning letters", as their purpose was to provide school principals with an opportunity to comment and confirm that the boards of governors had complied with their legal duty to have regard to the Department's guidance on post-primary transfer. The guidance states that primary schools:

"should not facilitate unregulated entrance test arrangements in any way".

That includes carrying out preparation for unregulated tests during core teaching times.

In writing to the eleven schools, the Department was also enabling principals to provide confirmation that their schools were meeting their statutory obligation to deliver the curriculum to all pupils. The fact that a school was written to in these terms does not indicate that it has been engaging in preparing children for unregulated tests or, indeed, that it is failing to deliver the statutory curriculum. It merely indicates that a concern has been raised about possible coaching at the school.

The Department's overriding priority is to ensure that the educational needs of pupils are being met. The Department cannot stand by and fail to act when concerns are raised that coaching for unregulated tests may be affecting the delivery of the curriculum and therefore the educational development of all children.

Tom Buchanan (DUP, West Tyrone)

I thank the Minister for his response. Will he confirm that the boards of governors have supremacy in this matter? As Minister, does he recognise their independence?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

The boards of governors do not have supremacy in this matter. A board of governors is there to ensure that the statutory curriculum is being delivered and has to have regard to the guidance issued by the Department of Education in relation to unregulated tests. They most certainly have a statutory duty to ensure that the curriculum is being delivered to all children.

The concerns raised with me and my Department vary in degrees of seriousness. However, is the Member seriously suggesting that my Department should ignore the fact that a parent, or someone else in the public, raises concerns that all children in a school are not receiving access to the full curriculum or that their education and learning is being fettered by the fact that some pupils are receiving preferential treatment over others? I think that I would be failing in my duty if I did not raise those concerns.

Danny Kinahan (UUP, South Antrim)

Does the Minister agree with his party colleague Mr Hazzard, who has accused the primary schools that are coaching as misappropriating public funds, or does he agree with me that those are outrageous remarks that should be withdrawn immediately?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

It depends on the level at which coaching is taking place, the time involved, and how much public funds schools are directing towards that. Public funds are given to schools for the teaching of all pupils and not just some pupils. It depends on the varying degrees to which it takes place.

The Member is vice-chair of the Education Committee. The Education Committee's role is to hold my Department, and me as Minister, to account. If I had failed in my duty to write to a school that concerns were raised about, a school that has been accused of coaching for tests or of not living up to its statutory obligation — its legal obligation to teach the curriculum — then the Committee would be justified in challenging me as Minister for not carrying out my duties. Here, I have the vice-chair of a Committee criticising me as Minister for ensuring that the statutory curriculum of our education system is being delivered. That seems to me to be somewhat ridiculous.

Seán Rogers (Social Democratic and Labour Party, South Down)

Minister, what evidence have you to suggest that some schools are failing in their duty to deliver the Key Stage 2 curriculum?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

As I said in my response, we have written to schools and asked them to confirm their position with regard to this matter, and they will respond in due course. We received letters of complaint or complaints from parents and other members of the public. Therefore, we followed them up, as is my duty as Minister, to ensure that the legal obligations of my Department are being carried out.

Judith Cochrane (Alliance, Belfast East)

Does the Minister agree that some preparation should be given to primary-school children in how to deal with exams? For many, within three months of starting secondary education, they are expected to sit a range of exams in numerous subjects. If primary schools do not do some of that prep, who will?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I am surprised that the Member is not aware that pupils sit various tests throughout their primary-school life.

Judith Cochrane (Alliance, Belfast East)

[Interruption.]

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I assure you that they do. They may sit weekly or monthly tests so that the teacher can assess how they are progressing in the curriculum.

These tests are not for the benefit of the primary school or all the children in the classroom; they are for the benefit of a selected number of schools that select and reject 10- and 11-year-old children. They have nothing whatsoever to do with the primary curriculum, which our schools are tasked and given public money to deliver.

People need to get their priorities right. My job as Education Minister is to ensure that all young people, not just some of them, have an opportunity in life. The worst-case examples that have been given to me over the years show that some children are being coached for a test while others are sent to the back of the classroom with colouring pencils. Is that the education system that Members want to see delivered in our classrooms? It is not the education system that I am prepared to see delivered in our classrooms. I expect all schools to teach all children to ensure that they have an opportunity in life.

Christopher Hazzard (Sinn Féin, South Down)

Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-LeasCheann Comhairle. I thank the Minister for his answers thus far. What is the Minister's view of the educational disadvantage in those incidences where children are sent to the back of the classroom with colouring pencils while others are at the front being coached for an exam?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

Any corruption of the curriculum is bad for education. Our primary-school curriculum is broad based, and we allow our teachers and schools to choose the tools, equipment and material that they need to deliver that curriculum to all the children in the schools.

Primary schools have a role in education. It is not simply to prepare young people and children for post-primary education; it is to prepare them for primary-school education. We have a specific primary-school curriculum to ensure that young people develop and are enriched in their educational outcomes.

Some in the Chamber seem to have the view that primary schools are there to corral children for a number of years and then to select the few — the chosen ones — and send them off to voluntary grammar schools and grammar schools while the rest of them can do whatever they want. That seems to be the mood of some in the Chamber.

[Interruption.]

That appears to be the mood of some in the Chamber, whereas I believe that it is fair, equitable and just that the taxpayers' money that is given to schools is used to ensure that all the young children in our schools, not just the chosen few, receive an education.

Trevor Lunn (Alliance, Lagan Valley)

2. Mr Lunn asked the Minister of Education to outline the annual number of teacher training places allocated to St Mary’s University College and Stranmillis University College since 2012-13. (AQO 7506/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

The total number of teacher training places that were allocated to St Mary’s University College in 2012-13 was 165, while 160 places were allocated to Stranmillis University College. The allocations remained unchanged in the 2013-14 and 2014-15 years. I am considering the allocations for the 2015-16 academic year.

Trevor Lunn (Alliance, Lagan Valley)

I thank the Minister for his answer. Given that, on the last available figures, only 18% of teachers found a job one year after graduation, the signature project is about to finish and the teachers' pension scheme is being extended to make teachers work for much longer, how in the world can he justify putting through teacher training places for probably more than 50% of the teachers that we need?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

How the numbers are chosen goes through a number of assessments. The Member appears to be supporting his colleague's assertion that we should close our local teacher training colleges.

We are at a very critical stage with our teacher training colleges. If I was to reduce the number significantly, or if we had slightly fewer teacher training places, we would lose our teacher training colleges. It is for others to make that decision, but I believe that that would be a huge mistake. I believe that it would be a huge mistake to lose that economic driver in our communities.

One of the most important statistics about teacher training is that there are eight applicants for every one place in a teacher training college. It is still a very popular career choice for our young people. Those young people have to make this decision: if I take on teacher training and qualify as a teacher, will I have an opportunity to fulfil my career pathway and become a full-time teacher? There is a serious question mark over that for many of them. What we can do instead is to close down our teacher training colleges and send all those young people over to England. I, personally, think that that would be a huge mistake.

Nelson McCausland (DUP, Belfast North)

In view of the number of places to which trained teachers can apply, and if the Minister has the number who are being trained, will he tell us whether he would support the removal of the requirement that to teach in Roman Catholic maintained schools requires a special certificate, which is viewed by many people as a discriminatory practice?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

That is a matter for the First Minister and the deputy First Minister to take on board. I have written to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister on several occasions, and I am awaiting a response. Personally, I believe that it should be removed. However, it is up to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister to carry that matter forward.

Pat Sheehan (Sinn Féin, Belfast West)

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as a fhreagra. What impact might any further reductions in the initial teacher training intake numbers have on students who see teaching as a vocation and will not be deterred by limited places in local universities?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

As I said in response to Mr Lunn, I believe that we are now at a situation where, if I were to reduce teacher training places even slightly, we would see the closure of our teacher training colleges. That damages our education system and our economy, and all that we would be doing would be shipping more young people over to England or Wales, wherever they wish to do their teacher training, and then they would return here anyhow. Let us produce high-quality trainee teachers; let us ensure that it happens here; let our teaching institutions become the envy of these islands instead of closing them down and sending our young trainee teachers elsewhere.

Robin Swann (UUP, North Antrim)

Minister, are you aware that, at last week's Employment and Learning Committee, the Minister for Employment and Learning accused you and your predecessor of being involved in a racket and of being involved in a model that artificially topped up the number of places in teacher training? Has the Minister for Employment and Learning ever asked you to reduce the number of teacher places?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I am not aware of exactly what was or was not said at last week's Employment and Learning Committee. We will have discussions in regard to teacher training numbers in the time ahead with the Minister for Employment and Learning. We have reduced teacher training places over the last number of years by 30%. The Minister for Employment and Learning has asked for those numbers to be reduced. I believe that the numbers that we bring forward are reasonable; they think beyond the current economic climate and into the future. We are about ensuring that we have a good cohort of freshly trained teachers coming through the system. I think that the decisions that we have made thus far are justified, and I emphasise again that we have reduced teacher training numbers by 30% in the last number of years.

Alex Attwood (Social Democratic and Labour Party, Belfast West)

Minister, given that you said that it would be a huge mistake to close our teacher training colleges, given that we are in a critical stage in respect of Stranmillis and St Mary's, and given that there may be as little as 40 days and nights between now and purdah in the middle of March, will you indicate whether you believe that this issue, given last week's view of the premia for St Mary's and Stranmillis, will be resolved, because, if it is not resolved by 20 March, the finances of those two colleges will be in jeopardy?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I am not sure that purdah rules over Executive Ministers; I know that it relates to the Westminster election etc. I think that it can be resolved very quickly, and I understand that the First Minister and the deputy First Minister are seeking for that matter to be brought to the Executive, and it may well be resolved there. I would like to see it resolved before that, but it is a matter for the Minister for Employment and Learning unless the First Minister and the deputy First Minister call it into the Executive again, and then it is a matter for the Executive.

Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice, North Antrim)

3. Mr Allister asked the Minister of Education to outline the impact on departmental functions of Her Majesty’s Government having a role in respect of the £500 million of capital funding to support shared and integrated education (AQO 7507/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

The Stormont House Agreement included a reference to additional capital funding for education as follows:

"a contribution of up to £500m over 10 years of new capital funding to support shared and integrated education subject to individual projects being agreed between the Executive and the Government".

Department of Education officials are engaging with the Treasury and the NIO to agree the shared campus and integrated school building projects that this funding is deemed applicable for. When agreement has been reached, the Department will bring forward the potential school build projects that qualify for the funding. The Department will submit these projects to the Executive and to the Treasury in accordance with the Stormont House Agreement. It is not anticipated that this potential funding for shared and integrated education will have any impact on my departmental functions.

Jim Allister (Traditional Unionist Voice, North Antrim)

If each project has to be agreed, does the Minister anticipate the business plans for each having to be agreed by Her Majesty's Treasury as well as his Department? Does he look forward to that unique form of power-sharing with Her Majesty's Government? That might diminish him as a Minister. I would not object to that, but he might.

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

The fact of the matter is that you objected to the Stormont House Agreement and the £500 million investment in our education system that goes with it. You would not find yourself in this position because you would have said, in your traditional format, "No". You would not have to query any of those questions, because no is a very easy word. If you want to invest in education and build a better society, a new society that is different from the one that you and I grew up in, sometimes, you have to say yes. When you say yes, you have to work your way through those processes.

On business cases etc, I hope that the Treasury, like me, wishes to avoid duplication of bureaucracy rather than increasing that bureaucracy. Discussions are ongoing, and I hope that we will make this process as simple and effective as possible, that we deliver new builds in our communities and that we strengthen shared and integrated education in our society.

Sammy Wilson (DUP, East Antrim)

As well as accepting advice from Her Majesty's Treasury on his capital spend for integrated education, will the Minister give assurances that, with any capital spend that impacts on other schools in a locality, consideration will be given to the views of other education providers and that we will not have a situation where, for example, an integrated school is allowed to expand at the expense of schools that exist in the area and may well be operating under capacity anyway?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I will take advice from all quarters and then make decisions. That is the role often. Any project being brought forward will have to be area-plan proofed, so it will have to take into account its impact, positive or negative, on other schools in its locality.

John Dallat (Social Democratic and Labour Party, East Londonderry)

I do not want to get caught in any controversy involving Mrs Windsor. Can the Minister tell us whether this money is about shared education projects rather than about shared education, which already exists in many schools? Those schools may not benefit from this bounty, whoever it comes from.

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

It is capital funding, so it is for infrastructure. It is for physical developments. I do not rule anyone in or out at this stage. We are still working our way through the finer detail of it, and I accept what I think the Member is trying to suggest, which is that, in many instances, schools have led the agenda in regard to shared education and that many have been years ahead of politicians on shared education. I fully accept that, and significant good work goes on quietly behind the scenes on shared education. As I said, I am not ruling anyone in or out of benefiting from this money, which is not revenue-led or project-led but infrastructure-led.

Ian Milne (Sinn Féin, Mid Ulster)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as a fhreagraí go dtí seo. What shared campus integrated projects are being taken forward in planning?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Chomhalta. Six primary schools and one post-primary school have integrated projects being taken forward in planning. Those are, in the primary sector, Braidside, Portadown Integrated Primary School, Drumlins, Roe Valley, Omagh and Corran, and, in the post-primary sector, Parkhall Integrated College.

Gordon Dunne (DUP, North Down)

4. Mr Dunne asked the Minister of Education how his Department will work to negate the long-term damage that budget cuts will have on the future for schools, particularly in the delivery of front-line services. (AQO 7508/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

As part of the 2015-16 final Budget outcome, my Department received an additional £64·9 million of funding in recognition of the inescapable pressures facing education and the overwhelming response to the consultation. However, I must emphasise that there remains a significant pressure on the education budget.

Throughout the Budget process, my aim was to protect, as far as possible, the funding to front-line services. Therefore, following the final Budget allocation and my wider education budget review, I immediately allocated £80 million to the aggregated schools budget. That allocation means that there has been no reduction in cash terms to school delegated budgets, although, in real terms, schools will face pay and inflationary pressures in 2015-16.

My focus remains on raising standards and closing the achievement gap. That continuous improvement will best be achieved when schools are supported and trusted to develop their own school improvement strategies. Also, by working with the boards, CCMS and others, my objective, through the area planning process, is to develop a network of sustainable and financially viable schools of the right size, in the right places and able to maximise the use of available resources so that they can focus on providing the quality of education that pupils deserve.

Gordon Dunne (DUP, North Down)

I thank the Minister for his answer. Can he give an assurance to the boards of governors of schools, including the board of Holywood Primary, which meets later this week, that, following the budget allocation that you just mentioned, there will be no reductions as such and it will be business as usual for our schools?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I am very reluctant to comment on any individual school, but it has to be recognised that, despite the very welcome contribution of £64-odd million to the education budget as part of the final Budget and my allocation of £80 million to the aggregated schools budget, there remain wage pressures and inflationary pressures on schools. Schools will make decisions on how to manage those pressures, and they are best placed to do so. I am continuing to analyse the remainder of my budget and budget lines, and I am attempting to ensure that I provide more funding to front-line education services. I will make announcements on that in the weeks ahead.

Fra McCann (Sinn Féin, Belfast West)

5. Mr F McCann asked the Minister of Education to outline how he is enhancing pupils’ ability to meet the needs of an increasingly competitive global market place. (AQO 7509/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

As Minister of Education, one of my key priorities has been ensuring that our children and young people have the knowledge, skills and attitudes to succeed and do well in work and in life. I am confident that the curriculum allows schools the flexibility necessary for students to build the skills, attitudes and understanding that they need to be global citizens, connected and able to contribute to the global economy.

The curriculum ensures that all our students are educated in the changing concept of a career and the various types of job in the local area, as well as opportunities to explore enterprise and entrepreneurship. Those opportunities allow our young people to investigate the need for creativity and enterprise, whether as an employer or employee, to identify and practise skills and to develop the attributes associated with being enterprising.

The flexibility offered by the curriculum framework and the curriculum means that schools can respond fully to meet the needs of the economy. Taking account of up-to-date labour market information on skills shortages and priority skills areas as they emerge allows schools to widen and review their curricular offer for pupils.

Fra McCann (Sinn Féin, Belfast West)

Go raibh míle maith agat. I thank the Minister for his response. Will ICT subjects such as computer coding be streamlined in schools?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

Computer coding is already available to our schools, and many primary schools in particular have taken advantage of bringing in outside clubs to add to their skills and resources in order to provide computer coding. Members will be aware that I commissioned a fundamental review of GCSEs and A levels in 2012. That work is in train, and, consequently, new and more challenging A levels and GCSEs will be put in place, including a computer science GCSE.

Michelle McIlveen (DUP, Strangford)

The Member referred to coding in primary schools. The Minister will be aware of lobbying by the digital industries for the introduction of coding into the curriculum from the age of eight. Is he giving that consideration?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

The curriculum is broad-based. On occasion, there are demands for a variety of subjects or materials to be defined in the curriculum and to ensure that a certain time is allocated to the teaching of these subjects. I am reluctant to go down that road at this stage. I believe that the curriculum serves its purpose. It allows for flexibility in the system, although I am also conscious that, by 2016, the curriculum will be approximately 10 years old and will be subject to review. At that stage, it would be useful for the Minister, whoever that is, to conduct a review of the curriculum and make decisions on whether aspects of learning, including computer coding, should become compulsory.

Leslie Cree (UUP, North Down)

What action is the Minister taking to concentrate on non-academic skills, such as confidence, resilience, trustworthiness and other essential life skills?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

That question relates to the first question that I was asked during Question Time: education is much broader than a simple analysis of the behaviour and performance of 10- and 11-year-old children.

The curriculum allows and is built around learning and skill-based education. It ensures that young people can avail themselves of a wide spread of topics and subjects. Indeed, when they progress through their learning in post-primary school to GSCE level, they now must have a choice of up to 24 subjects and, when moving towards A level, a minimum of 27 subjects. So the curriculum is built on a strong basis of academic, vocational and general subjects.

When I engage with employers — some are significant employers — they ask not only for young people who are academically well qualified but for young people who are well rounded, confident citizens who are able to be team players and team builders when they go into the workplace. The curriculum allows for that, and schools can and should be encouraged to continue down that pathway without distractions.

Maeve McLaughlin (Sinn Féin, Foyle)

6. Ms Maeve McLaughlin asked the Minister of Education if he has any plans to introduce any new subjects at GCSE level. (AQO 7510/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

A review of GCSE provision is being undertaken here and in England and Wales. Since we have, in the main, an open market for qualifications, that will mean that revised specifications will become available to schools over the next three years.

Responsibility for introducing new subjects at GCSE rests with an individual awarding organisation. Decisions by awarding organisations, including CCEA, on the nature and scope of their GCSE offer will reflect demand from schools. In response to the requirements of the entitlement framework, for example, CCEA has, in recent years, introduced new GCSE titles, including contemporary crafts and agriculture and land use. In addition, in responding to discussions with key stakeholders, including employers, CCEA has, as part of its GCSE provision, plans to provide a GCSE in software development for first teaching from September 2017.

In considering the development of new titles, all awarding organisations will need to take account of the accreditation criteria requirements for GCSE qualifications, which are set by the regulator here.

Maeve McLaughlin (Sinn Féin, Foyle)

Go raibh maith agat. I thank the Minister for his answer thus far. Given that some schools want to opt for subjects such as politics at an earlier stage, is there room to do that and what options are available?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

There are opportunities, particularly through Learning for Life and Work. This qualification provides an introduction to government and politics and reflects the curriculum requirements for local and global citizenship at Key Stages 3 and 4. From foundation stage to Key Stage 2, all pupils study personal development and mutual understanding, which encompasses two strands, one of which is mutual understanding in the local and wider community, which can have a broad interpretation for teachers in the classroom. As I said in responses to earlier questions, they can use whatever material and tools they choose. I welcome the fact that, on Mondays and Tuesdays, you will often see primary-school children in and around the Assembly, involved in and learning about how the Assembly works and engaging at a very early age. I do not know whether they are impressed, but I know that they are here.

Robin Newton (DUP, Belfast East)

That ends the period for listed questions. We will move on to topical questions.

William Humphrey (DUP, Belfast North)

T1. Mr Humphrey asked the Minister of Education what his view is of the recent sad decision made by the Belfast Education and Library Board to close Malvern Primary School in west Belfast, given that he has been very supportive of the children and young people zone for the greater Shankill. (AQT 2061/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

My view on that development proposal will be based on the submissions that I receive during the consultation period, whether those be from elected representatives, school pupils or the broader community. I have no view established yet in regard to the matter and will only make a decision when all the facts are before me.

William Humphrey (DUP, Belfast North)

I thank the Minister for his answer. On Friday, the Member of Parliament for North Belfast, Nigel Dodds, and I met the principal of Glenwood Primary School. That school is due a new school and will be an educational hub for the mid-Shankill. When will the work begin on that development?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

Two questions for the price of one. Apologies to the Member, but I do not have that information in front of me. I am more than happy to supply him with the information in due course.

Tom Buchanan (DUP, West Tyrone)

T2. Mr Buchanan asked the Minister of Education what action he is taking to free up the pathway for teachers from within the Unionist community to access employment in schools in the maintained sector. (AQT 2062/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I assume that the Member's question refers to the Catholic certificate for teaching purposes, which was raised during Question Time. The Member may be aware that the certificate is available to non-Catholic members of the community through distance learning courses at, I think, the University of Glasgow and perhaps also through Stranmillis, so there are a number of opportunities for non-Catholic teachers to achieve that certificate and teach in the maintained sector.

Tom Buchanan (DUP, West Tyrone)

Does the Minister not accept that it is a barrier, and that the barrier is discrimination against teachers from the Unionist community?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I accept that it is certainly a perceived barrier. My personal view is that it should be done away with. In the teaching of the sacraments, I believe that there are other ways of achieving that objective and goal for the Catholic sector rather than every teacher having a certificate. The Member will also be aware that any change to equality legislation is the responsibility of OFMDFM.

Roy Beggs (UUP, East Antrim)

T3. Mr Beggs asked the Minister of Education for an update on the capital and resource funding that will be available to schools in the foreseeable future and to state how he is facilitating agreed amalgamations, such as the new school project for Islandmagee, which can improve educational outcomes and result in reduced running costs. (AQT 2063/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

The education budget was being discussed as I entered the Chamber just before Question Time, and, as I said, while I welcome the fact that we have received £64 million as a result of the final Budget, there are still significant revenue pressures in regard to education. I will make further decisions in due course as to how we deal with those revenue pressures and if and where we can inject more revenue into front-line services.

There is a significant dip in the capital budget for education moving forward. I believe that all the major projects that I have announced will continue to move forward. However, there may be some delay in some of the school enhancement programmes, and there will be less money for minor works programmes moving forward as well.

I have no details in front of me on the specific school that the Member mentions, but I am more than happy to share any information on that or give an update to the Member in due course.

Roy Beggs (UUP, East Antrim)

Will the Minister acknowledge that the pupils, the parents and, indeed, the community in Islandmagee feel that they are being discriminated against given that they agreed the amalgamation of Ballypriormore, Kilcoan and Mullaghdubh primary schools over 10 years ago but, as yet, no school has been built? Yet the Minister has been able to find perhaps over £2 million for his own pet project school, an Irish language school, which will operate at a projected running cost —

Robin Newton (DUP, Belfast East)

Can we have a question?

Roy Beggs (UUP, East Antrim)

Local children in my community feel that they are being discriminated against. Will the Minister ensure that he deals with all members —

Robin Newton (DUP, Belfast East)

Order.

Roy Beggs (UUP, East Antrim)

— of the community equally?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

One of the downsides of topical questions is that a Member can stand up and ask a constituency-specific question and I, as Minister, am supposed to have details on the 18 constituencies and all the projects.

It is simply impossible for me to have that. I am only in post four years, so whatever happened before I came into post I know nothing about. I have made announcements about capital projects moving forward. A number of them required development proposals, and I think that there may have been changes, sponsored by the board, around development proposals in the area that the Member referred to. Then there was a change of heart, and that caused delay as well. When I make an announcement about a new capital build, I make it on the basis of consultation with the sponsoring management body, whether it be CCMS or the education board. If there is a change after that, it will inevitably cause delay.

I assure you that there is no element of discrimination in regard to these matters. I have not directed any capital funding towards Coláiste Dhoire, and I will ensure that I continue to lobby for more money for capital and drive forward the capital building programme. I noted, as I came into the Chamber, that the Chair of the Education Committee was able to report that the Department of Education had spent all its capital funds over this last number of years, and I intend to make that the case this year as well.

David Hilditch (DUP, East Antrim)

T4. Mr Hilditch asked the Minister of Education for details on the extent of misuse and problems with social media in schools. (AQT 2064/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

Social media have a positive element, without doubt, and are used by pupils and teachers in schools in a positive way and to meet learning criteria. However, they are also used in bullying and the viewing and spreading of inappropriate information, whether it be about individuals or made-up information about individuals, referred to as cyberbullying. Currently, I have out to consultation an anti-bullying strategy. As part of that, we are looking at cyberbullying, and it will involve collaboration with the Department of Health, which is taking the lead on a broader element in relation to cyberbullying.

David Hilditch (DUP, East Antrim)

I thank the Minister for his answer. There are indeed pilot schemes and programmes about at the moment, and I know that Mr Simpson has been involved in one in your constituency. Have you had a chance to study any of those? Could they be used across the education sector?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I was recently in a primary school in Pomeroy, County Tyrone, which, along with an outside arts company, has produced a very informative film. It was put together by the young people of the school and involved them. In that, they set out their relationship with and reaction to social media. I thought that it was very informative and succinct in the messages that it sent out. The simple message was this: if you would not trust a stranger on the street, why would you trust one online? The young people put the message across very well. I am familiar with the projects being run by individual schools and communities in relation to cyberbullying and other such matters.

Paul Frew (DUP, North Antrim)

T5. Mr Frew asked the Minister of Education for an assurance that the youth centres will be sufficiently supported in budgetary terms in the coming year, given the restoration of some £2 million in the Budget to the education and library boards. (AQT 2065/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I have restored approximately £2 million to ELB youth. How that money is distributed across the youth sector is a matter for the education and library boards.

Paul Frew (DUP, North Antrim)

Given the fact that the youth centres do a tremendous body of work with young people, acting as a diversion from involvement in crime and teaching young people other things socially outside the school setting, is the Minister supportive of enhanced funding for those youth centres?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

There are different challenges and demands in education. It is worth reminding the Member that his party brought a motion to the House only a few weeks ago calling on me to protect front-line education as in "schools only". There was an amendment tabled by my party colleagues about youth work and other factors, but it was rejected by the House. You cannot have it both ways. You cannot call for funding one day and then reject a proposal for it on another. I fully support youth work. It is an integral part of our education system. Over my period in office, I have increased funding for it. I was keen to announce funding for the ELB youth sector at the same time as I announced funding for schools. I will do my best to enhance youth funding in what is a very difficult climate for the education budget.

Robin Newton (DUP, Belfast East)

Mr Ross Hussey is not in his place. I therefore call Mr Sammy Wilson — Sorry, Mr Sammy Douglas.

[Laughter.]

Sammy Douglas (DUP, Belfast East)

I thought the Principal Deputy Speaker was a good friend of mine.

Sammy Douglas (DUP, Belfast East)

T7. Mr Douglas asked the Minister of Education whether he agrees that Dundonald High School is making very good progress following the stay of execution that he ordered last year. (AQT 2067/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I would go further: there are to be no changes to Dundonald High School. The decision has been made: it is staying open. It is an integral part of the education framework in that area. I take the opportunity to congratulate the pupils, the parents, the community, the teaching staff and senior management at the school for their excellent work since a decision was made on the future of the school.

Sammy Douglas (DUP, Belfast East)

I thank the Minister for his answers so far. He did not include politicians — the MLAs who lobbied him — in his congratulations. Would the Minister continue to encourage his officials and others to work with the school and parents to ensure success for this major school in east Belfast?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I have no difficulties with congratulating the local MLAs on that matter, despite the hard time you continually give me. You and your colleagues worked well with me and my Department, the community and the school to ensure sustainable education provision.

Edwin Poots (DUP, Lagan Valley)

T8. Mr Poots asked the Minister of Education, while declaring an interest as a school governor, when he will inform boards of governors about the readjusted budget, given the additional finance he has received in the Budget. (AQT 2068/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

We are finalising preparations for letters to all schools, which will, hopefully, issue by the end of this month. The Member will appreciate that we have to run quite a complicated formula, taking into account any changes to the schools' pupil intake etc. Then we will notify schools of their exact budget for the coming financial year.

Edwin Poots (DUP, Lagan Valley)

Does the Minister recognise the stresses that school governors and management teams have been under? Given the significant rise that he received following approval by the Executive of the Department of Finance and Personnel's proposal, will he adjust school budgets significantly upwards from the original proposal?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

The Member is aware that I announced £80 million for the aggregated schools budget — the global amount — which is an increase of about 0·2% in funding for the next financial year. However, each school's budget is based on a much more complicated formula that has to be run for 1,138 schools before they can all be informed in due course. I remind the Member and the House that the year ahead for education is still a very difficult one. Difficult decisions have yet to be made. It will prove to be a very difficult year for schools, the Education Authority and any other body attached to education. I welcome very much the decision by the Executive to increase funding to education, but all Departments are dealing with a uniquely difficult financial environment.

Stephen Moutray (DUP, Upper Bann)

T9. Mr Moutray asked the Minister of Education to outline the number and progress of development proposals submitted to his Department by schools in the Craigavon area. (AQT 2069/11-15)

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

I think we have four currently in the Craigavon area. We have one for St Mary's in Derrymore, out at Aghagallon — now, you have caught me. Just give me one second; I think we have an answer here on something similar. There are two development proposals for schools in the upper Bann area: one for St Mary's Primary School in Derrymore and another for St Patrick's Primary School in Magheralin.

Stephen Moutray (DUP, Upper Bann)

I thank the Minister for his answer. What does he intend to do for the pupils of Lurgan College, Portadown College and the Lurgan campus of Craigavon Senior High School, who for years have been in outdated accommodation that is not fit for purpose?

John O'Dowd (Sinn Féin, Upper Bann)

There is a difference between a development proposal relating to school enrolment or to a change of character of a school and one requiring capital investment, as in the second question asked by the Member. Both of them are, however, connected here. There needs to be a change of direction in education in that area that takes into account the needs of all the young people and not just two of the schools. If we get into a mindset where we are dealing with all the young people in the post-primary controlled sector in Craigavon, we can come forward with a proposal that will receive financial support and support from the Department of Education. At the minute, however, many people are focused on two schools rather than on them all.

Oral Answers to Questions — Employment and Learning

Caitriona Ruane (Sinn Féin, South Down)

1. Ms Ruane asked the Minister for Employment and Learning to outline the action further and higher education colleges are taking to eradicate homophobic bullying. (AQO 7520/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Each further education (FE) college and higher education (HE) institution is required, as a public authority, to have in place an equality scheme and to report to the Equality Commission on steps taken to promote equality of opportunity for categories listed in section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998.

During 2013, I asked my officials to conduct an audit of how our colleges and universities were taking forward policies to combat homophobia. The results of the audit confirmed that all our institutions engaged in a range of positive practices in that area. In the FE sector, all colleges have in place a range of pastoral care arrangements aimed at promoting the health and well-being of students by providing them with access to appropriate guidance and support, including personal safety and protection, anti-bullying, harassment, self-harm and suicide. Initiatives in place include running awareness and promotional events, training staff in combating bullying, providing support to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) groups in college campuses, engaging with the Rainbow Project and working with college student unions. In the higher education sector, institutions engage in a range of positive practices. All higher education institutions have anti-bullying policies and procedures in place that cover homophobic bullying. Those policies and procedures continue to be monitored, reviewed and updated when necessary.

Caitriona Ruane (Sinn Féin, South Down)

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as an fhreagra sin. I acknowledge and welcome the measures, but students in colleges continue to experience homophobic, bi-phobic and transphobic bullying. Does the Minister agree that more needs to be done to ensure that LGBT students feel safe while they study? What further measures will the Department implement?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Obviously, colleges and universities are taking measures forward, and those measures are constantly reviewed. Indeed, we seek updates from the colleges to that end. I am stunned — indeed, I am shocked — that the Member, given that she is a former Education Minister, is challenging what happens in the FE and HE sector, where good practice is in place. In the wider community, there have been demands for successive Education Ministers, including the Member, to ensure that we have proper effective measures in our school setting to deal with, specifically, homophobic bullying and not just bullying in general. That has been a major gap in provision over the past number of years. In that context, I am somewhat surprised that the Member is challenging the good practice that happens in the FE and HE sectors, compared with what has not happened in our schools.

Sandra Overend (UUP, Mid Ulster)

I thank the Minister for his answer. Will he outline the steps he has taken with regard to sectarian intimidation in colleges? Some find that certain colleges are a cold house for unionists.

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Our colleges and universities are very mindful to ensure that we have a neutral environment where people can learn together. A neutral environment does not need to be a homogenised environment where expression of culture is removed from that situation. Clearly, where complaints are made in that regard, whether to student unions or the authorities, you need to take those comments extremely seriously.

John Dallat (Social Democratic and Labour Party, East Londonderry)

I feel the need to pay tribute to the people in colleges of further and higher education who have tackled the problem. I ask the Minister whether there is anything that we can learn from their endeavours and successes that could be used in the wider battle against homophobia.

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

I thank the Member for his comment. I join him in paying tribute to the leadership across the third-level education sector in ensuring that we have a welcoming environment.

My specific points in response to his question relate to how colleges can engage with the wider community through, for example, local policing and community safety structures and how they can engage with the community and voluntary sector, particularly the organisations that lobby, campaign and provide welfare in relation to different section 75 categories, including, for example, the LGBT sector.

Colleges should also look at how, in general, they can ensure that they have good, efficient practices in place that will robustly challenge in those situations where there is a clear breach of equality duties, including intimidation and bullying.

John McCallister (UUP, South Down)

In his reply, the Minister quite rightly mentioned the importance of ensuring that through the main education system and into the FE sector. Will he comment on what measures are in place in colleges and through his Department? What support is there for young people on government-supported work schemes to make sure that they too are protected from any form of bullying or harassment, including homophobic bullying?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

The Member makes a very valid point. To that end, as we have sought to design our different apprenticeship and youth training programmes looking to the future, as well as our provision under Pathways to Success for our NEETs strategy, we have been very mindful of ensuring that those involved in the provision of training are alert to the risks of bullying, including homophobic bullying, and on how to ensure that there is proper pastoral support. Indeed, one of the key design features of the new youth training system, the public consultation of which is closing, is a much stronger focus on pastoral care than has been the case up until now.

Alex Easton (DUP, North Down)

2. Mr Easton asked the Minister for Employment and Learning for his assessment of jobs fairs being held in local communities. (AQO 7521/11-15)

Gregory Campbell (DUP, East Londonderry)

10. Mr Campbell asked the Minister for Employment and Learning what steps his Department will take to ensure significant numbers of jobseekers will attend future jobs fairs and advice forum events, such as the one scheduled for Limavady today. (AQO 7529/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Mr Principal Deputy Speaker, with your permission, I wish to group questions 2 and 10 together and to request an additional minute for the answer.

Bringing job fairs and information days into the heart of local communities has proven to be a very successful way of helping people into employment. In 2014, job fairs were held in Belfast, Derry, Ballymoney and Newry, and one was recently held in Craigavon. I am pleased that feedback from employers, support organisations and local clients has been encouraging.

Those who attend can be interviewed for a job. Additional services are available on those days, including online job searches and participation in a job club workshop, where those who attend create their own CV. They also get tips and techniques about interviews.

The Department has also held a number of local community events where attendees have been offered full-time employment, while others progressed into a work placement opportunity. After the recent event in Kilcooley in Bangor, eight clients progressed into work, 45 were offered a work placement opportunity and three commenced the skills development programme.

Importantly, following on from those events, many employers have requested my Department’s assistance with bespoke recruitment events, therefore providing further opportunities for local clients and communities.

Job fairs are promoted actively to unemployed clients visiting local jobs and benefits offices and job centres. They are also advertised through local media, press releases, social media sites, my Department’s website, JobCentre Online and through sending leaflets to local community groups, libraries and colleges.

My officials also take local geographical considerations into account and organise a community bus facility for rural areas, if required, to afford clients in those areas an opportunity to participate. In the lead-up to job fair events, my officials work with clients locally to remove any barriers to attendance and to ensure that every possible effort is made to allow clients to attend. That approach was successfully used during the recent job fair in Ballymoney, where community buses transported clients from Ballycastle and the surrounding areas to Ballymoney. The same practice was used for last week’s job fair in Craigavon. That ensured that clients from Lurgan, Portadown and surrounding areas could participate.

I am pleased that there has been a steady rise in the attendance at job fairs due to the measures put in place.

Alex Easton (DUP, North Down)

I thank the Minister for his answer. Does the Minister agree with me that, considering the bad weather, the Kilcooley event was very well attended, with over 100 young people going to it? Does he feel that the partnership approach not just between his Department and me for setting it up but with the local community organisations, particularly the Bangor chamber of trade, is the type of model that we want to roll out across Northern Ireland?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

First of all, for the benefit of the press release for this week's 'County Down Spectator': yes, the Member did a good job in helping to organise the event.

The partnership between the community and voluntary sector and the local business community is very important. Those work most effectively when they are from the bottom up and respond to local demand. Where we can see clear evidence that there is a critical mass of people in the community sector or in local businesses who wish to take the opportunity, as a Department, we are more than happy to facilitate that.

Gregory Campbell (DUP, East Londonderry)

First, I congratulate all the Departments involved in a similar event this morning that I left about four hours ago in Limavady, County Londonderry. I will ask the Minister the same question that I asked some of the organisers of that event: what emphasis is put on the evaluation after the events? This morning's event seemed to be exceptionally successful from the numbers that I could see. What lessons are learned once the evaluations have been received from the event?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

The Member is right to stress the importance of evaluation and constant learning as we go. I am pleased to hear the very positive feedback received from Limavady. Some1,700 people came through the doors at an event in Craigavon last Thursday; those are considerable numbers. We can evaluate success through a number of different outcomes, one of which is the number of those who progress into work or into further training places. However, we can also get feedback from those who attend events as to whether they found them useful and that they were being matched with potential employers according to their interests. Again, that feedback tends to be very positive.

Pat Ramsey (Social Democratic and Labour Party, Foyle)

Like other Members, there is no doubting the value, the contribution and the success of these fairs. There was one in the Millennium Forum in Derry last year where hundreds of young people were queuing for jobs. It is a success story. Is there any way that you could look at incentivising small and medium-sized businesses to participate in and contribute to these fairs?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

The point is how we can look to do better in promotional work with SMEs to make them aware of the opportunities. It would be a much more efficient way, at times, for people to see the potential talent in communities than maybe some of the more traditional recruitment techniques. It may be viewed in the short run as a barrier or an inconvenience for businesses, but we have a message to communicate that this is something that is very much in the interests of businesses of all sizes but in particular SMEs.

Trevor Lunn (Alliance, Lagan Valley)

Will the Minister acknowledge the role played by the local business education partnerships in this area, particularly, if I may say so, the Lisburn one, which is very active and had a careers convention just last week that attracted over 1,000 young people?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Very much so, and I welcome that engagement. I recently hosted a dinner for the incoming chief executives of the new super-councils and the chief executives of our local FE colleges. The FE colleges have a very important role in business support, particularly around matching skills with the emerging needs of the new council areas, which are taking on additional economic development powers. Between the informal structures that we have at present and what we can do more formally through the statutory agencies, there is a real desire to focus on local solutions for these problems, recognising that Northern Ireland does not necessarily suit a one-size-fits-all solution. I was particularly pleased that we had representatives from Lisburn City and Castlereagh District Council, who were very proactive in seeking out new opportunities.

Alastair Ross (DUP, East Antrim)

3. Mr Ross asked the Minister for Employment and Learning for an update on his review of employment law. (AQO 7522/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

In September 2014, I provided the Employment and Learning Committee with an overview of the key policy proposals that have emerged from my Department’s consultation on a range of measures designed to improve the effectiveness of our current employment relations system. Following that engagement, I secured the Executive’s agreement for the drafting of an employment Bill that will give effect to the agreed policy proposals.

These include a new process of early conciliation to be delivered by the Labour Relations Agency; the drafting of appropriate enabling provisions that would allow for a neutral assessment service to be established; the conversion from confirmatory to affirmative procedure of the Department’s power to amend the qualifying period for the right to claim unfair dismissal; and adjustment from 90 days to 45 days of the period of consultation in collective redundancy situations involving 100 or more employees.

My Department has recently undertaken further policy reviews dealing with zero-hours contracts and the rules that govern the operation of employment tribunals. A paper on legislative proposals on regulating zero-hours contracts is being prepared for the Executive. It is intended that a consultation on tribunal rules will be launched in early March 2015. It is my intention to secure Executive agreement to formally introduce the employment Bill to the Assembly before the summer recess.

Alastair Ross (DUP, East Antrim)

The Minister will know that, in order to be a business-friendly environment, we want to have a highly skilled workforce if we can get the lower rate of corporation tax and have flexible labour laws. Is he confident, given the fact that, in Great Britain, they have moved further on reforming employment law, particularly around the qualifying period for unfair dismissal, that after his employment law Bill goes through the House, we will not be at a disadvantage compared with other regions in the UK in being attractive to investors and job creators?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

First, it is important that we approach employment law with a perspective of balance, ensuring that we meet the needs of business and give it sufficient flexibility. However, we must also ensure that we are giving protection to workers and that our law is keeping up to date in that regard. That is why we are looking at zero-hours contracts; not to rule them out but to ensure that there is adequate protection in an emerging area in how we are dealing with employees.

It is important that we recognise that employment law is devolved in Northern Ireland. We are the only part of the UK where that is the case. It is important that we are competitive, but there are different ways to ensure that. In particular, I highlight what we are trying to do about the routing of claims through the LRA and creating a much more holistic approach, based on the alternative dispute resolution techniques. Those things will put us at a considerable advantage compared with many of our neighbours. Unfair dismissal is a much more controversial issue, and the Member well knows that there is not an agreed approach on that issue within the structures of the Assembly.

Danny Kinahan (UUP, South Antrim)

What does the Minister intend to do within law to make it easier for small and medium businesses to take on additional employees without putting their businesses at risk?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

We have a situation where businesses can take on employees. We are seeing, for example, a change to a much more casual approach to employment, which recognises how labour markets are evolving. In many respects, that is a natural progression, but it is important that, as government, we keep up to date with the changes in practice, that we ensure that our regulation is balanced and proportionate and that we are mindful of the interests of employees and ensure that their rights are appropriately balanced and protected.

Phil Flanagan (Sinn Féin, Fermanagh and South Tyrone)

Go raibh maith agat, a Príomh-LeasCheann Comhairle. Given his comments on the casualisation of labour and my concerns about the casualisation of workers' rights, what legislative proposals are contained within the Executive paper that the Minister is drafting on zero-hours contracts? Specifically, how does his paper intend to further enhance and protect the rights of working people?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

I welcome the Member back to the Chamber with formal speaking rights. He would have picked up from the previous answers that we touched on the issue of zero-hours contracts. We are finalising proposals in the Department to take to the Executive. Also, the Committee is set to get a briefing on the issue either this week or next week. We are seeking to introduce some regulation in respect of zero-hours contracts, particularly around exclusivity and the conditions under which people would have the right to request or expect a different type of contractual situation.

The main issue around casualisation is the uncertainty around pay and the knock-on effects that that has for someone when it comes to planning family life, access to benefits or the ability to secure mortgages and other such financial instruments. So, there is a big debate there. The intention is, once we get Executive approval, which will hopefully be secured over the next few weeks, to go to the legislative draftspeople to get the clauses drafted. Those clauses will be included in the main employment Bill, which will hopefully be introduced to the Assembly before the summer recess.

Tom Elliott (UUP, Fermanagh and South Tyrone)

4. Mr Elliott asked the Minister for Employment and Learning to outline the impact of the Budget 2015-16 on employment levels in further education colleges. (AQO 7523/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Although the final budget for my Department has somewhat improved since the draft Budget, with £20 million being restored from the initial cuts that were proposed, the Department still faces an unprecedented funding situation. That will impact across all areas of my Department's work, including further education. I have tried to protect front-line services, but there is no doubt that the cuts will have implications for staffing in the colleges and places in the colleges. Those are, however, matters for the colleges.

I met with the Employment and Learning Committee last week to apprise it of my thinking on the budget cuts, and I am in the process of finalising decisions. I am proposing a £12 million reduction for the further education sector, which may be partially mitigated by the proposed use of £6 million of end-year flexibility, subject to the agreement of the Executive. That is, in effect, the use of the reserves within the sector.

Tom Elliott (UUP, Fermanagh and South Tyrone)

I thank the Minister for that update. I acknowledge what he says about it being up to the regional colleges how they decide their budget, but will he give us an example of the potential redundancies that that could create in, for example, the South West College? Will there be compulsory redundancies?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

With respect to the Member, I need to be very careful about speculating about places and jobs and what happens in individual colleges. Each will be in a different financial situation. The effects of the cuts will work out differently in each of those areas.

Without doubt, we still face a significant situation. It is worth noting that this is, perhaps, the first time in living memory that we are about to rationalise access to further education, which, hitherto, has always been open to the public across the board.

There is a coordinated approach in the sector to how the cuts can be managed. I am pleased that across Colleges NI, principals and chairs of boards, there is a common understanding of the different means by which the effect of the cuts may be mitigated in a manner that reduces the impact on the front line as best as possible.

David Hilditch (DUP, East Antrim)

I thank the Minister for his answers. We learned at the Committee recently that there is a chance to try to offset the college budgets by equalising fees. Given the differential, how could that work?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Our higher education institutions are entitled to charge a fee just short of £3,800. Our further education colleges are also providers of higher education. Two of the six colleges charge fees in the region of £2,500; the remaining four charge in the region of £1,500. So, across the sector — building on the point that I made to Mr Elliott — there is a view that those fees should be standardised at in the region of £2,500, which is still significantly less than tuition fees for a higher education qualification at a university.

Higher education within further education will still be an attractive option, in particular as foundation degree courses are designed with the needs of employers and the wider economy in mind. They are an attractive and lucrative way of achieving third-level qualifications that will stand someone in very good stead in their career.

Joe Byrne (Social Democratic and Labour Party, West Tyrone)

I thank the Minister for his answers. Does he agree that the cutbacks in courses in some further education colleges could have a damaging effect on the local economy, particularly the cuts in enterprise training, STEM subjects and practical vocational courses? What advice is the Department giving to governors of colleges to ensure that there is no shortfall in the provision that will affect employment?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

I cannot give any assurances when dealing with cuts. They will have real impacts on front-line provision, and we will seek to mitigate those as far as we can. Nonetheless, there will be an impact on the front line. The scale of cuts that we are making means that that cannot be avoided.

All of that will have an impact to some extent on the economy in different parts of Northern Ireland and in our society as a whole. We have asked for protection for some areas: for example, what we are doing on apprenticeships and the new youth training system will be protected. We have also asked the universities and colleges to protect investment in STEM subjects, given their particular importance to the economy.

A strategic and planned approach is being adopted to how we find the savings. Nonetheless, it is a challenging situation.

Anna Lo (Alliance, Belfast South)

I thank the Minister for coming to the Committee last week specifically to brief us on the budget. I know that he is trying his best to mitigate the cuts, but I understand that Belfast Metropolitan College is seeking to cut English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) teaching quite drastically to meet its budget. What impact will that have on the new immigrant population?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

We take ESOL and access to it very seriously. What is happening at Belfast Met is just the standardisation of the approach taken in the other five colleges. This will remain a feature of all our colleges. As we continue to attract skills and people from overseas to work and invest in our society, it is important that we continue to provide them with access to ESOL-type courses.

Daithí McKay (Sinn Féin, North Antrim)

5. Mr McKay asked the Minister for Employment and Learning for an update on the drawdown of funds to support workers facing redundancy at JTI Gallaher. (AQO 7524/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Minister Foster and I have been working proactively with JTI Gallaher to discuss its plans and the needs of its workforce in an evolving situation. My officials are exploring the use of the European globalisation adjustment fund in these circumstances. This provides support to people losing their jobs as a result of major structural changes in world trade patterns due to globalisation — for example, when a large company shuts or production is moved outside the EU. The fund has strict eligibility criteria, and my officials are continuing to explore whether these would be met in this case. I plan to build on the work of my officials and to include this in discussions when I am in Brussels later this month for meetings with the European Commission.

The Department has a portfolio of services available to assist JTI Gallaher employees. The careers service and employment service offer advice and guidance. This includes the redundancy advice service, which, in partnership with other organisations, provides information and advice on available options and support. The Northern Regional College has liaised with JTI Gallaher on the help that it can provide. In addition to its ongoing programme, which is open to all, the college is offering a tailored approach of conducting skills audits of the workforce. This would help individuals to obtain relevant qualifications, either by accrediting their experience or providing the training necessary to gain relevant skills and qualifications.

Daithí McKay (Sinn Féin, North Antrim)

Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-LeasCheann Comhairle. I thank the Minister for his answer. He referred to the globalisation fund. What is his assessment of the likelihood that we will qualify for the globalisation fund and that those funds will go to the workers?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

If the Member is asking me to be realistic, I would say that our prospects are narrow. Nonetheless, we will seek to explore all the options. It was interesting that, when the announcement of the redundancies was made last year, virtually every party, in some form or other, rushed to the media to say that the European globalisation fund will be the answer to our problems, without necessarily checking through the issues. We have to bear a few things in mind. One is that we have to ensure that the jobs actually qualify. If jobs in Ballymena are being relocated elsewhere within the European Union, those job losses will not count towards eligibility. It is jobs that are lost to outside the European Union that are eligible. On the other hand, we can also include the supply chain, so we may just make that threshold. We then have to ensure that any bid that we make is approved and processed by the Department for Work and Pensions in London. As the Member will appreciate, it has to be channelled through the national member state, which, in our case, is obviously the UK. To that end, the UK Government have not previously supported any application to the fund. We also have to ensure that what we put in place in Northern Ireland is additional to our existing provision. We will have to make sure that we match fund the European globalisation fund from local resources or the company itself.

Robin Swann (UUP, North Antrim)

The Minister says that the opportunity is narrow. What additional work are he and the Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister doing to make sure that it becomes a reality?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

We have had a number of discussions with the company and floated with it the potential of its making some contribution, in the event that a successful bid could be made. We have had discussions with the Commission about how best to make an application. I intend to take those forward further next week when I am in Brussels. We are not yet in the position whereby we would be expected to make any application. We have to wait until the job losses become a reality, which will not be until May 2016. However, if we feel that we have a reasonable prospect of a successful application, we will seek to proceed on a shadow basis and get a provisional indication of the likely success or otherwise of a bid so that we can process a bid very quickly when the timing allows us to make one, which is once the redundancies become a reality.

Paul Frew (DUP, North Antrim)

If we put aside the discussions on a bid to the globalisation fund, what discussions has the Minister had with JTI Gallaher to ensure that it leaves a lasting legacy in north Antrim and Ballymena in particular? That would be cold consolation, but it would at least help the community and people there.

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Speaking for Arlene Foster and myself, we have had full cooperation from the company. It has been accessible to us and is acutely aware of the impact of the loss of jobs on the lives of individual workers, their families and the wider community. The company is more than happy to facilitate the work that we do as a Department, and also that of other agencies and the Northern Regional College's skills audit and retraining. It is important that Members bear in mind the key issue of the timing around when this will take place, because production is continuing in the factory and, if anything, will increase as it works towards the change in directives, so it is important that we do not interrupt the company's natural flow of business. At the same time, though, we can move quickly to intervene at the appropriate time. We stand ready to go when the company deems it appropriate for us to do so.

Robin Newton (DUP, Belfast East)

That ends listed questions. We move now to topical questions.

Cathal Ó hOisín (Sinn Féin, East Londonderry)

T1. Mr Ó hOisín asked the Minister for Employment and Learning, given his continuing crusade against St Mary’s University College, resulting in his cutting its premia, how he intends to protect its excellent work in promoting Irish-medium education. (AQT 2071/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Let me be clear at the outset: there is no crusade against St Mary's University College, although, at times, if you listen to comments from the college and other political parties, there is perhaps a crusade against me in all of this. We have to recognise that the system we have at present is not working or delivering. It is very much an artificial system, where we subsidise our teacher training, whether through an artificial figure of teachers to be trained, the premia or the expansion into non-initial teacher education (ITE) subjects. We are doing more and more to prop up a system that is not sustainable in its own right.

That is why it is important that we consider reform, in the context of which we can put in place a range of models that can ensure that we protect issues around ethos, including how we can train teachers for the Irish-medium sector. We have seen how reforms have taken place successfully in Glasgow, and more recently — from September — in Dublin. In the case of Dublin, we see a Catholic institution, with a history longer than St Mary's, and a Church of Ireland institution with a history longer than either, coming together with Dublin City University to create a new approach to teacher training in the city. That is happening with the support of the Catholic hierarchy, and issues around ethos can be accommodated within a shared and inclusive environment. That applies to both the Church of Ireland and Catholic Church ethos in teacher training in the Catholic maintained system. That begs this question: if something can be done successfully in Glasgow and Dublin, why is Northern Ireland insisting that it is so different?

Cathal Ó hOisín (Sinn Féin, East Londonderry)

Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-LeasCheann Comhairle. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht an fhreagra sin. I thank the Minister for his answer. Can he assure me that, contrary to what he has intimated, should the Executive decide to reinstate the premia for St Mary's and Stranmillis, he will stand over and implement such a decision?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

The Member knows well that, as a Minister, I am bound by the ministerial code and that, where a decision is taken by the Executive, that decision will be respected. However, that is not going to prevent me from ensuring that I continue to highlight the importance of prioritising skills in our economy. It is not going to stop me from talking about and continuing to promote the importance of a shared future.

The Member talks about the importance of protecting the Irish culture. I took the opportunity to invite some of the protestors who were at Parliament Buildings a couple of weeks ago to talk to me about teacher education and what was so important about it that they were trying to protect. I was quite shocked by some of the things that I heard. First, people said that they did not feel safe celebrating their Irish culture outside the context of St Mary's. In terms of what we hear, particularly from unionist Benches, over our universities and the perception — false in my view — about the Gaelic culture in universities, I found that an incredibly strange and narrow approach to take.

I also heard people say that they did not see the need to engage in sharing. They were quite happy, having gone to a Catholic primary school and a Catholic secondary school, to go to a Catholic-based third-level education system, because they would be going on to teach in a Catholic secondary school or Catholic primary school when they qualify, so why did they need to mix with anyone else in society? In the 21st century, when we are trying to build a shared future, I find those attitudes to be utterly shocking.

David Hilditch (DUP, East Antrim)

T2. Mr Hilditch asked the Minister for Employment and Learning to detail any effect that the budgetary settlement will have on those in the NEETs category. (AQT 2072/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Very clearly, there are some major challenges in relation to NEETs. We were lucky to have a very generous settlement from the Executive for our Pathways to Success strategy for the 2012-15 period. That funding package expires on 31 March. To be fair, that was always the understanding. Had the situation been different, I would have hoped that that funding package would be renewed. That has not been the case, so we have lost that money, in the same way that we have lost some of our jobs and economy initiative money. It then falls to us to see how we can best address those shortfalls.

We are looking at how we can continue the community family support programme, and I am optimistic that that will be the case. We are also trying to see how some existing good practice can be replicated in the forthcoming European social fund (ESF) round. Applications have gone in on the basis of how they can engage with young people who are disengaged from the labour market. Indeed, that is one key feature of the current ESF round, which is a bigger round than in previous years. It is a very challenging situation, but, nonetheless, the strategy stays in place, and we will continue to see how we can find alternative means to deliver for that important group of young people.

David Hilditch (DUP, East Antrim)

I thank the Minister for his answer and acknowledge the challenges that he has ahead. There will be a knock-on effect from the loss of places at the higher education level, which will impact down through the colleges. Can we give any protection to the vulnerable in our communities, where the colleges do a lot of work and programmes?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

It is important that our colleges continue to outreach in the community. There are some good examples of students themselves, through community and voluntary work, working in disadvantaged communities on some of those issues. Indeed, students can get credit through the new higher education achievement report, which has been rolled out in our higher education sector for those non-curricular activities that are so important towards employability skills. It is a real benefit for students engaging in those types of activities. Without doubt, we are facing a potential loss of provision, and there is no plan B for how we can mop up. If we had additional resources, we would do what we would like to do in our existing plans.

Christopher Hazzard (Sinn Féin, South Down)

T3. Mr Hazzard asked the Minister for Employment and Learning why a substantial number of applicant organisations to the European social fund were disallowed on the basis that they did not provide management accounts, despite having supplied audited accounts, which has always been the case to date. (AQT 2073/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

It is important to bear in mind that we are currently going through a live process. Where groups wish to make an appeal, they can do so. At this stage, I should say that the guidance notes that were sent out in relation to the ESF round were very clear on the need for both audited accounts and management accounts. People were advised to ensure that they provided all the information requested. Nonetheless, where a group wishes to challenge or appeal any decision that has been taken, it is free to do so. A number of organisations are taking up that opportunity.

Christopher Hazzard (Sinn Féin, South Down)

I thank the Minister. I am not surprised that a number of organisations are taking up the opportunity to challenge that. It has been brought to my attention that at least two organisations were contacted behind the scenes by your Department and it was requested that they resubmit their financial documents. In an effort to redress that particular wrong, and maybe avoid court cases that will do nothing to address the financial crisis that many of those organisations now find themselves in, what steps will you be taking to redress the situation?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Let me be very clear: organisations can appeal and we will listen to all the evidence that is provided. I am not part of that process. Equally, the Member needs to be aware, as does every other Member, that we have to ensure that we have an objective standard by which we allocate funds from the European social fund. Were we to find ourselves in a situation where the guidance notes and rules had not been followed, and if we were to bend those for particular organisations, that would have a knock-on effect for the integrity of the process. We would end up in a situation where a group that would otherwise be funded, and had followed the rules, would then have an even bigger potential claim against the Department.

David McNarry (UKIP, Strangford)

T4. Mr McNarry asked the Minister for Employment and Learning to confirm how many regional further education colleges have been in budgetary deficit in the past three years. (AQT 2074/11-15)

David McNarry (UKIP, Strangford)

I must say, I liked the Minister's response to the first topical question. We will see how we go from here on.

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

I cannot give the Member the complete figures. I will write to him in that regard.

The situation in the FE sector has meant that the colleges have faced declining financial support from government over the past seven or eight years and have not had any meaningful increases. At the same time, we have asked them to do a lot more, so they have been doing extremely well to maintain their level of activity on what is, in effect, a declining resource basis.

As the sponsoring body for the colleges, my Department keeps a close eye on their accounts. While deficits may occur from time to time, none of the colleges are causing us any concern with their direct financial management. As the Member may know, some colleges have been in a very worrying situation in the recent past.

David McNarry (UKIP, Strangford)

I accept that the Minister will forward the information to me. I look forward to receiving that and thank him for what he said. Does he accept that part of the solution will be the replacement of the big-college model with expensive big bureaucracy with small, lightly managed, responsive colleges with minimal bureaucracies?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

If anything, we are probably likely to go in the opposite direction, given the real pressures with resources. One of the initiatives that we are seeking to take forward is the promotion of shared services across the six colleges to try to find efficiencies in provision.

One thing that is not on our agenda is any rationalisation of the six colleges down to five, four, three etc. On the other side, we are not seeking to devolve things any further. We have come from a position of having a larger number of colleges, and the decision to consolidate, quite rightly in my view, was taken about 10 years ago.

I also want to be clear that our colleges are incredibly responsive and have changed dramatically their engagement with their local businesses communities over the past number of years. They are increasingly seen as the first point of contact with businesses, particularly SMEs, that are looking for skills and, increasingly, for research and innovation solutions. Some of the things that we are doing to manage the current budget problems and address duplication between the Department and the colleges have been resolved in favour of the colleges. We are trying to give them more power at a local level to engage with their local business communities to create local economic solutions.

Robin Newton (DUP, Belfast East)

Mrs Pam Cameron is not in her place.

Mike Nesbitt (UUP, Strangford)

T6. Mr Nesbitt asked the Minister for Employment and Learning for an update on the situation with regard to Emma Rogers who is working in Australia. (AQT 2076/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

I cannot give the Member a direct answer on that point, and it is probably not appropriate to discuss an individual case on the Floor of the Assembly. I am pretty certain that I cleared a response to the Member about that. Hopefully it has been received and a positive solution has been obtained.

Mike Nesbitt (UUP, Strangford)

I assure the Minister that Miss Rogers has no difficulty with the case being raised. She is a resident of Perth, Australia, although she is a native of Northern Ireland. She is working in a childcare centre and is under threat of losing her job because, although she is fully qualified — the Minister has the information to that effect — through no fault of her own, she does not have the certificate because of an error by City and Guilds. The Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority has said that she will have to leave her job if she does not get that certificate. What is the Minister doing to ensure that that person stays in employment?

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

From recollection, I think that we cleared a response to the Member in that regard and the issue has been satisfactorily resolved. If the Member wishes to come back and feels that that is not the case, we are more than happy to entertain further representations. I think that the issue has been resolved. Hopefully the Member has received correspondence from the Department to that effect.

Adrian McQuillan (DUP, East Londonderry)

T7. Mr McQuillan asked the Minister for Employment and Learning for an update on the Northern Regional College new build. (AQT 2077/11-15)

Stephen Farry (Alliance, North Down)

Oh dear. Which campus?

Adrian McQuillan (DUP, East Londonderry)

Coleraine.