Empey calls on Government to scrap ‘Big House’ Summit Plan
UUP Leader Sir Reg Empey had urged the government not to stage a ‘big country house’ summit in October as part of their efforts to raise the political stakes in the run up to November 24th.
It is understood that the government is planning another Leeds Castle type ‘spectacular’. The UUP Leader has cautioned against the move and not just on the grounds of the massive expense to taxpayers.
In a statement Sir Reg said,
“There is speculation that the Northern Ireland parties will be moved to Scotland or England for another summit in a big country house sometime in October. The aim of this move is presumably to raise the political stakes in the run up to the November 24th deadline.
The cost of hiring the venue, the associated security, flying over, accommodating and feeding a large number of MLAs and staff is astronomical and a chronic waste of public expenditure.
The big house spectacular summit may have worked in the past in terms of the optics and trying to generate a pressure cooker environment, but in reality they achieve little. Can anyone in Northern Ireland name one big house summit where a breakthrough was made? The answer is surely no. The contrary is true. Castle Buildings, Stormont and Hillsborough Castle have been places where meaningful progress has been made in the past.
I have already urged the government not to go down the road of another big house summit. It is irritating to politicians who cannot communicate with their parties at home due to limited communications and often poor mobile phone reception; their staff who cannot operate effectively and the taxpayer who has to foot the bill for these summits.
We need meaningful dialogue and a meaningful engagement amongst the parties. We do not need a stately home for this to happen. If anything the opposite is true – the big house summit hinders progress. The government need to think again.”