Row over 'extension' of Assembly sittings
A ROW has erupted over plans to extend sittings of the Assembly into the Christmas holidays to deal with government financial issues in the face of the credit crunch.
The DUP and Sinn Fein want MLAs to delay their break by one week.
The last plenary session of the Assembly is scheduled for December 9 but Finance Minister Nigel Dodds wants MLAs to sit on the following Monday (December 15).
In particular, he is seeking to redistribute funding across the various government departments – moving unspent cash into areas of need, such as fuel poverty.
Angry words were exchanged, yesterday as the Ulster Unionists' chief whip Fred Cobain said his party was against the proposal – of a one-week extension – because it would see decisions being rushed through the House without proper time for Assembly committees to scrutinise, in detail, the spending of public money.
He told the News Letter: "We are unclear as to the exact plans of the DUP and Sinn Fein but what is the rush? They need to explain this.
"In the last monitoring round in September we had the same situation, of money being pushed around and no time for scrutiny. It's undemocratic.
"What's so special about the December 15, if there is such a panic on why not give us another week to the 22nd? The point is the DUP and Sinn Fein cannot be allowed to railroad through their plans without them being scrutinised."
The next quarterly monitoring round, where departmental funds are redistributed to address in-year funding pressures, is scheduled in January.
However, Mr Dodds wants to bring it forward a month to allow him to formulate a package of measures to tackle the effects of the credit crunch before Christmas.
Mr Cobain claimed: "This is nothing to do with getting money out to older people or anything like that," he said.
"This is the DUP and Sinn Fein doing a bit of cheerleading for themselves before Christmas by going out and telling people how wonderful they are.
"There are supposed to be checks and balances in this place (Stormont), and that's the role of the committees – to hold ministers and departments to account. But we won't be able to do this under this proposal."
The Assembly Business Committee – which sets the agenda for Assembly business – heard Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly request the extension of this Assembly session on Tuesday.
But unanimously, the MLAs on the committee (including Sinn Fein and DUP members) said they could not agree, before knowing more about why this request was being made.
Mr Cobain said: "If this about dealing with water charges, well they are not due in until April, so no rush there. If it is the civil service back-pay issue, we have until the end of January to deal with that. So no rush there. What are they at?”
Mr Dodds said: “The public will not forgive us if the cry from some quarters is ‘oh we want more time and the public can just wait’.”
DUP MLA Alastair Ross added: “This latest bizarre argument that some UUP MLAs have conjured up is quite clearly a poor attempt at trying to get their diminishing voice heard and is a desperate plea to find relevance.
“Of course the role of committees and the Assembly should be respected but that is not the argument. The UUP argument was very much that these pressing decisions should be let sit while their MLAs take their Christmas holidays.”
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Weather for Belfast
Tuesday 29 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 12 C to 21 C
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