Campaign for victims of institutional abuse takes big step forward

Yesterday I had the great privilege of accompanying some of the survivors of institutional abuse in Northern Ireland to a meeting with the First and  deputy First Ministers.

I did not blog about it over the past couple of days because I was not sure what reception we would receive nor whether the state would respond seriously to the demands for an independent public inquiry, a redress process and support structure for those who are trying to cope with the legacy of their abuse.

A public and without prejudice apology by the First and Deputy First Minister’s on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive acknowledging the hurt and injury caused, is also overdue. I believe this statement should be made in the Assembly at an early date.

Many of the survivors left this region to rebuild their lives elsewhere. Others became came caught up in the troubles on both sides and nearly everyone we have met is in some way scared by the childhood abuse they suffered at the hands of those running and working in homes and other care institutions.

The First and deputy First Ministers acknowledged this. Over the coming weeks there will be further meetings to discuss all the issues raised but the process has begun and as the old phrase goes, there’s no turning back.

When is an inquiry not and inquiry?

When is an inquiry not an inquiry?

When its an opinion, for that’s what Senior Counsel Paul Maguire will now provide the First Minister. He is not, it turns out going to conduct an investigation or inquiry but simply examine the information available or provided to him and give his expert opinion on whether rules have been broken by the (self suspended? – on leave?) First Minister.

I don’t know Mr Maguire but am told he is a straight bat. However if all he is going to do is provide an opinion, it will do nothing to address the serious confidence issues faced by the Executive as a result of the Robinson and Adams’ affairs.

OFMDFM have the power to call inquiries. We may be reaching the point where such a mechanism needs to be considered in order to protect the integrity of the joint office and credibility in our institutions of government.

Is the SF – DUP coalition turning into a bad debt?

The two key criteria when granting a mortgage are the applicant’s ability to pay and their willingness to do so.

This analogy could easily apply to the DUP – SF coalition.

Both parties have a mandate to govern but are they really willing to?

Yesterday it was business as unusual at Stormont. An able and intelligent Minister was handed the keys to the first ministers office but only on a caretaker basis. Arlene Foster has been asked to look after day to day business whilst Peter Robinson looks after policing and justice. If the Executive had been functioning normally then great but truth is there has been very little evidence of life, except on issues like policing and justice, in OFMDFM for two years now. The weeks ahead can bring retrenchment and more of the same or both parties can use Ms Foster’s appointment and her considerable talents to get the Executive working again and the policing and justice issue settled.

Parents want progress on education and thousands of working families want their jobs back.  Sectarianism is being ignored not addressed and the looming budgetary crisis is being swept under the carpet of sex, money and power. If this continues the DUP – SF coalition will turn into a bad debt not because of the two parties inability to govern, but because of their unwillingness to do so.

Time to put people before parties

Nothing has happened since I last blogged to clear the fog surrounding Peter Robinson and Gerry Adams. Both leader still face serious questions.

The First Minister’s QC inquiry is going down like a lead balloon. It’s clear that formal inquiry mechanisms either through the Assembly, Westminster, the Electoral Commission and or the police will now become the vehicle for the disclosure of fact and the adjudication of behaviour.

Assembly Members gather in Stormont this morning after the long (many would say too long) Christmas break. The Order of Business has four procedural motions either passing the buck to Westminster or appointing new MLA Billy Leonard to his committees. There will be one significantdebate on health. Conor Murphy will face questions and I am sure many members will have much to ask about DRD’s response to the cold snap.  

Even before the Robinson saga broke this Assembly was in poor shape. The order of the day has been to use the place to further narrow party interest with little apparent regard for the issues which matter to the ordinary people of this region. 

This week the DUP and Sinn Fein can clean the slate and agree to put people before party, or they can continue as they have to date. The choice is theirs.   

Peter Robinson may not survive the week. If  he resigns will Sinn Fein refuse to re-elect a new First and Deputy First Minister?

Last week Mark Durkan wrote to all party leader asking for an urgent meeting.

It will be interesting to see if such a gathering takes place.

Robinson’s legal opinion unlikey to stop the questions

For the fourth Sunday the leader of a major Northern party is facing serious questions. Peter Robinson has pushed Gerry Adams off the front pages although the SF President’s questions haven’t gone away – to paraphrase the man himself.

The First Minister has asked a senior council to investigate whether he has breached any of the many codes his is bound by. If Mr Robinson is hoping this will answer his critics I think he being naive. Such an opinion depends entirely on the specific questions the lawyer is asked to address, his terms of reference if you like.

Several questions arise about this.

1- Will the Terms of Reference be published?

2- Will a relevant organ of the Assembly be given the opportunity to express and opinion or alter them?

3- When the opinion is produced will it be published?

4- Will the senior council be available to the appropriate Assembly organ to answer questions about her/his opinion?

I don’t believe the answer to any of the above will be yes and even if it were there could well be formal investigations by the Ombudsman, the Committee on Standards in Public Life and the Electoral Commission to follow.

Mark Durkan steps down at SDLP Leader in less then a month. He does so on his own terms and after a managed and renewing leadership contest. I am sure there are some DUP and Sinn Fein members who now wish they were in the same sort of planned transition. As it is they are being led by men in the shadow of  gathering personal storms.

Lets hope politics here is mature enough to survive leadership changes and that the Assembly resolves to put the interests of our region first.

Robinson’s silence inexplicable

The Sunday papers are full of comment about the First Minister’s failure so far to issue a statement on the death of Cardinal Daly. I attended St Peter’s yesterday at noon with Cllr Niall Kelly, Alban Maginness MLA and Carmel Hanna MLA. Apart from being a man of peace Cahal Daly was also a neighbour here in South Belfast. That is how I will remember him.

Seamus Mallon speaking on the BBC’s Sunday Sequence earlier spoke of the efficiency of the Office of First and Deputy First Minister, who is his words would have had a draft statement available for both ministers within hours of an event such as the Cardinal’s passing.   This is so because the office is meant to be above community divisions and a voice for everyone in the North.

Let us all hope that a statement issues soon.  The people believe the days of dragging politics into death are gone in the North.

The sooner our aging leaders realise this the better.

The speech Peter Robinson will never make

I was asked to write the speech Peter Robinson won’t make tomorrow at his part conference for today’s Belfast Telegraph. Here it is.

 In three short years we will celebrate the centenary of the Ulster Covenant; the greatest expression of unionism in history. Now is our time to reflect; to learn from history and seek inspiration to make the next hundred years prosperous and peaceful.  

 Dr Paisley’s great hero and our great inspiration, Edward Carson, would be proud of where we are today. Ulster is at peace. Its people well fed and cared for and the two traditions are at last finding the space to work together in mutual interest. He would have been happy to see an ash tree plated beside him at Parliament Buildings. A symbol of the Gael in him and so many of us, nationalist and unionist; a reminder that whilst proudly British we are also deeply Irish.

 It is time to express our unionism in modern ways. To look into our children’s eyes and pledge they will live a life of opportunity, free from persecution or discrimination. Aware of history but not prisoners of it; able to love their faith without having to hate another’s.

 The moment has come to accept the cancer growing inside us all. To acknowledge that peace does not mean reconciliation and that we all have many prejudices which we must bury before this region can truly thrive. We must be careful not destroy what we most want to defend; yet the longer we ignore sectarianism the weaker Northern Ireland becomes.

 It was Carson who said “believe me, whatever way you settle the Irish question, there are only two ways to deal with Ulster. It is for statesmen to say which is the best and right one. She is not a part of the community which can be bought. She will not allow herself to be sold. You must therefore coerce her if you go on, or you must in the long run, by showing that good government can come under the home rule bill, try and win her over to the case of the rest of Ireland”

 We are Irish too and the time has come to celebrate this. To look south and ask that we be persuaded a new Ireland can work. We will never give up our rights nor our identity. It is for our fellow countrymen, as Carson would have described our nationalist brothers and sisters, to convince us that the peoples of this island are worth uniting. It is for us to come to that discussion with open minds and a willingness to explore new relationships and opportunities for everyone on this isle we all call home.

 There is also a job of work to be done here. We must build a Northern Ireland bigger then its two communities. We must make our region place of hope; a beacon to others who suffer in the din of war; a triumph of politics over prejudice; a place our children will want to lay roots and make their fortunes.

DUP heading backwards, not forwards

The DUP has launched a policy document outlining a major programme of government reforms which the party will be seeking to implement. Proposals included in “Driving Forward a Reforming Agenda” include:

·        Reducing the number of government departments

·        Reducing the number of Assembly Members

·        Streamlining the Office of the First Minister

·        Ending the current system of political designations in the Assembly

·        Introducing Voluntary Coalition government, replacing Mandatory Coalition

·        Increasing efficiency in North-South arrangements

·        Abolishing the Civic Forum

·        Abolition of the Parades Commission

·        Tackling public sector absenteeism

So there you go.

The DUP want a return to majority rule, to bring back the old Stormont, an end to North – South Cooperation and to bin equality.

“No Unionism” is back!

Peter Robinson cracks under questioning

The First Minister, Peter Robinson MP, MLA, cracked under questioning by the BBC’s Martina Purdy yesterday. He appeared to “lose it” during a press conference at Stormont when asked whether it was time to revisit the now two year old Programme for Government and Budget in light of the worsening public finances.

Hopefully a clip will make it onto YouTube during the course of the day to assist readers.

There is one very big communications lesson in it all. NEVER, and I mean NEVER loose it in front of the cameras. Once you do you loose any authority and any credibility. The issue becomes incidental and your behaviour becomes the story.

Of course Mr Robinson has other problems on his plate. The media are hot on his and Mrs Robinson’s tale over the half million pound price tag on their many a diverse roles as public representatives.

The Belfast Telegraph has the story this morning:

The DUP leader rejected “Swish Family Robinson” jibes made in London newspapers over combined salary and expenses bills totalling more than £500,000.

As the Belfast Telegraph revealed last week, Mr Robinson received £274,906 in salary and expenses from his political posts in 2007/08. His current total figure — reflecting his First Minister’s pay — is believed to be in the region of £300,000.

His wife Iris, who holds MP, MLA and council seats, received £257,640 in the financial year 2007/08. That included some £10,000 for chairing the Stormont Health Committee.

Their allowances cover such areas as travel, staffing, office-running expenses and the costs of staying in London.

The two Robinsons employ their three children and a daughter-in-law on their staff teams.

They are also entitled to claim separate London living expenses from the Commons for the same flat in the city.

In 2007/08, their combined totals for London living costs came to £40,342.

In a press conference yesterday, Mr Robinson hit out at recent coverage in the News of the World and Daily Mail — including a headline about the “Swish Family Robinson”.

He said: “It is intended to be offensive, it is an Ulster Unionist phrase that they have used consistently. I think we need to be clear, the News of the World and the Daily Mail did not come across this story. This is the Conservative sleaze department that is putting it out. It is very deliberately being put out by the Tories on behalf of the Ulster Unionists.