MLAs line up to give Education Minister Peter Weir a ‘verbal beating’

The Assembly sat for nearly two hours to discuss the situation facing schools in the new year, after a recall petition had been submitted by the SDLP in a bid to “compel” the minister to defer the return to face-to-face learning.

In the event, Mr Weir announced he would do just that in the hours before the Assembly session started.

MLAs from parties other than the DUP minister’s own appeared to take it in turns criticising Mr Weir’s handling of the pandemic.

SDLP MLA Daniel McCrossan said: “I want to say that we are in this position because of a minister who continues to ignore everybody. We do not know who is advising this minister, nor do we know what scientific or medical advice this minister is following. I am pretty certain that all along, we have been told that the incubation period for the virus is up to two weeks, yet this minister wanted to return at least 30 children into a classroom in front of a teacher, which puts people at huge risk.”

He continued: “Teachers, principals, school staff, parents and members of the community have all spoken out in outrage and with considerable anxiety, but yet it has taken, once again, a recall petition for this minister to change his mind. It has taken Gavin Williamson to determine the English position for this minister to determine the Northern Irish position.

“It is a totally reckless situation and it shows a minister who is not in control of his own department or brief.

“It shows a minister who is more willing to follow a Conservative government instead of putting the interests of our community first.”

Alliance MLA Chris Lyttle, who chairs the education committee, also accused Mr Weir of taking his lead from Westminster.

“The education minister who does not want to meet the education committee, does not want to engage with the Assembly and does not, it seems, want to make decisions until Gavin Williamson has made his, has today again been required to do so by a cross-party, cross-designation Assembly recall for the second time in less than two weeks,” he said.

Further criticism of the minister prompted the UUP MLA Mike Nesbitt to say: “I do wonder what this session is intended to achieve. Is it just to give the minister a verbal beating?

“If it is, fair enough, I suppose that that is part of the political mix, and I know there are many who think that the minister deserves a verbal beating. However, surely there is more to it than that.”

Sinn Fein MLA John O’Dowd, meanwhile, urged the minister to plan for “the potential that schools will remain closed for a significant period”.