Community Consultation. It only takes three minutes

We launched our South Belfast Community Consultation this week. Over the next month we will knock on about 3000 doors across the constituency to ask people their views on local and regional issues.

There is also an online survey open to anyone whether you live in South Belfast or not. It only takes three minutes to complete and I would really appreciate your views. 

Please do pass on to friends or neighbours who you think might be interested.

http://tinyurl.com/conallmcd

Are you happy?

It’s been one of those best of, worst of weeks.

From depressing riots to the joy of LegenDerry.

Here’s a little talk by Dan Gilbert from TED about why we are happy….

What is success? Here’s a Wooden answer

I had the great pleasure of spending some time with teachers this past week.

 Whether it was Gerri and Iain, leading the team at the Loughshore Education Centre in North Belfast, or Andy McMorran who has turned around Ashfield Boys School in East Belfast they challenge us think about what success really is. 

Then I came across this TED talk by ‘Coach’ John Wooden.  Well worth a watch.

Police failing to enforce speed limits

Following a Freedom of Information request I submitted to the PSNI asking for the number of Fixed Penalties for speeding in many of the roads connecting the Malone Road to the Lisburn Road, it was revealed that no Fixed Penalties have been issued in the past three years on any of the streets in question for speeding offenses.

Many of the streets which I enquired about are notorious “rat runs” and are being used by many drivers to beat the traffic on the arterial routes. I have been inundated with traffic queries recently and I was shocked to find out that not one single penalty notice has been issued in the areas I enquired about, despite the fact that they are known to be areas in which speeding is a problem.

To compound the problem a PSNI station is located at the bottom of two of the streets which I asked about, Adelaide Park and Cranmore Park, it would make you wonder if the police are simply ignoring the issue.

I am currently advocating a reduction in the speed limit in urban residential areas from 30mph to 20mph which will require PSNI co-operation if they are serious about making our streets a safer place for all. I am calling on the PSNI to demonstrate their commitment to preventative road strategies, and to work to eradicate dangerous driving.

DRD Minister not doing enough to get us out of our cars

Today I have been asking Minister Conor Murphy why he is failing to get people out of their cars and into other more sustainable forms of transport.

The number of single occupancy journeys by car in Belfast increased by 13 million between 2006 and 2008. The Minister has also reported an increase, according to the most recent figures produced in 2007, of around 19% in journey times on key transport corridors.

Figures have also shown that the number of people opting to travel by bus has slightly decreased since 2007, from 36.2 million to 35.8 million in 2008.

The Minister is failing to get people out of their cars and as a consequence, our roads infrastructure and environment are under considerable pressure. These figures clearly show that we need to invest further in public transport to provide incentive to coax people out of their cars.

If we are serious about reducing the volume of traffic on our roads we must seriously look at how we can achieve reduced rates of car uptake and we can only achieve this by making public transport an attractive alternative to those who are car dependent.

I am calling on the Minister to demonstrate his commitment to long term investment for sustainable transport models and to provide leadership in highlighting the importance of this issue.

Will any MLA join me on the bike during Bike Week and save serious money?

As many regular visitors to O’Conall Street will know I commute to Stormont from the bottom of the Lisburn Road on a bike purchased tax free a couple of years ago through the ride to work scheme.

It’s a round trip of 18 miles and takes me just over 40 min each way.  According to the cycle calculator on the Bike Week website this daily exercise save me £7.20 every day!

Based on two days a week on the bike to Parliament building since I joined the Assembly on Jan 21st and not taking into account all the cycling I do around the city and constituency, I have already saved £250!

My ride to work also burns up at tidy 810 calories a day.

So here is my challenge to any MLA who lives within 10 miles of Parliament Buildings.

Join me for on your bike commuting to Stormont for just one day during bike to work week (June 19 – 27) and set a good example for all.

Sex, Drugs and HIV. Public health and how we ignore it.

Public health is deeply affected by the myriad of inconsistencies in today’s political systems that prevent our money from effectively fighting the spread of HIV according to Elizabeth Pisani. Her research with at-risk populations — from junkies in prison to sex workers on the street in Cambodia — demonstrates the sometimes counter-intuitive measures that could stall the spread of this devastating disease.

Mephedrone ban welcome but new classification system now needed

Families across Northern Ireland will welcome today’s news that Mephedrone has been classified. However for some this has come too late and will be very cold comfort indeed.
 
I am calling on the government to urgently introduce a system of temporary classification which would allow Ministers to classify a new legal high as soon as it comes on the market.

The current system which means a drug must be proven to be harmful before it is classified is all wrong. What we need is a system which put the onus on the chemists developing these drugs to prove they are safe before they can be made legal. Temporary classification would allow potentially dangerous drugs to be banned immediately before it is proven safe by the Advisory Committee on the Misuse of Drugs. This change should be made on an all island basis to ensure young people everywhere in Ireland are protected.

New cycle racks for Belfast City Centre great news

The announcement of 50 new bike racks for Belfast City Centre is great news and long overdue. On my way up to Parliament Buildings this morning from the BBC, I noticed a good number of cyclists coming in from East Belfast. The new racks are being funded by my leader and Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie.

I may be the only MLA to use a bike regularly but am meeting more a more business people and public servants – many in senior positions – who are now using bike regularly. My kids school has also had to build a new bike shed to accommodate extra demand.

Biking is a great way to stay healthy, reduce your carbon footprint and enjoy the city. That’s one of the reasons I am leading the campaign for the reduction of the speed limit on all residential urban streets to 20mph.

FM & DFM should meet survivors of clerical and institutional abuse before deciding scope and shape of inquiry

I have not seen the paper Health Minister Michael McGimpsey MLA has sent to the Executive about clerical and institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland but understand from what he and other Executive sources have said publicly that some sort of historic public inquiry into institutional child abuse in Northern Ireland is now under active consideration.

Yesterday a number of the survivors and I spent a very useful day in Dublin hearing first hand from those in government and advocacy groups about their experience of the Ryan and Murphy Commissions; what had worked and what had not.

Everyone is in the South seems very encouraged at the way the Assembly Health Committee and Northern Ireland Executive has dealt with this issue to date. But then this has been the easy bit. Deciding to hold an inquiry is a huge step forward but designing that inquiry so that is is capable of delivering the truth and justice survivors so desperately need is the next big challenge. We do not want to crack open the piggy bank so the lawyers have a field day, nor can we wait ten years for an outcome, yet we do need justice and people need to be held to account for their crimes. That’s why I welcome the endorsement colleagues on the Health Committee gave to my suggestion that any inquiry should be time limited.

It will also be important to decouple any process of inquiry into historical abuse in institutions here in the North from the need to inquire also into clerical abuse in the community. The first can be done by means of a regional inquiry because by definition homes and other institutions were either in Northern Ireland or not. On the other hand all but two Northern diocese are cross border and clerics are routinely moved around Ireland so there will need to a cross border dimension to that process. This could be achieved by establishing it under the auspices of the North – South Ministerial Council, an idea which seems to be gaining traction in Dublin and Belfast.

There are so many questions which now need discussed and reflected on.

That’s why is it essential that the First and Deputy First Ministers meet with survivors to hear first hand what their expectations of any process of inquiry would be is so important.

The days I have spent with these amazing men and women have been my most rewarding to date in the Assembly. Their dignity, determination and drive to get justice for those children who the state put into the care of evil people is humbling. It makes life as an MLA really mean something.