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Carrickfergus Ulster Unionist Councillor Mark Cosgrove has made an appeal to the UDA /Beyond Conflict group to urgently engage with the decommissioning body with a view to full decommissioning in the very near future.

Councillor Cosgrove said, “the ordinary people of Carrickfergus and the rest of South East Antrim do not want people being shot in our communities. They want jobs, peace, affordable housing, quality leisure facilities and general prosperity, not mobs of young men roaming the streets.

“In Carrickfergus we have completely turned our economy around following the unemployment disasters which beset our local industry in the relatively recent past. It is ironic that at a time when we have our lowest ever unemployment, have invested £millions to produce a world class leisure complex for our town, created the Carrickfergus Development Company to implement a vision of an historic family day out, that we appear on the regional and national news with scenes of sinister mobs and the forces of law and order being shot at.

“The people of Carrickfergus do not want to return to the days of despair, death and destruction. The people of Carrickfergus and Northern Ireland have moved on. If those involved in loyalist paramilitarism genuinely want to share in creating much needed community infrastructure, they should be encouraged to do so – as long as they decommission and disband their paramilitary structures. The basic rule of any democratic society applies – anyone who wants to can work for the people within the law. We cannot promote Carrickfergus in the way we need to if the scenes of violence continue.

“Along with my colleagues I am determined to continue to seek to realise the massive potential of our beautiful, historic town.”

Danny Kennedy MLA, Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, said today that while he welcomed the creation of a unified border force to fight against international terrorism which the Prime Minister has said will be “highly visible and uniformed,” this would raise serious issues of control if policing and justice powers were devolved to the Assembly.

“This new border force will bring together elements of the immigration and customs services so clearly it is a national as opposed to a regional force. This is also borne out by its border control remit which will be outside the scope of a regional administration in Stormont since it related to national security. It raises important questions, however, about the policing of the land border with the Irish Republic which, in turn, impacts directly on North-South relations.”

“There is no question that the land border with the Irish Republic is a UK border and will, therefore, have to be included in the remit of the new force. This is especially important after recent high profile drug smuggling cases where it was alleged by the authorities that drugs smuggled via the West Coast of Ireland were destined for the English market.”

“With the intelligence service MI5 already operating in the Province, the advent of a border force raises serious issues about the common sense of devolving policing powers to a local administration. This could seriously weaken efforts to co-ordinate policing activities since it is difficult to understand how certain operations against criminality could be as seriously advanced if they were not carried out under one single command structure but required all sorts of liaison between two or even three separate forces with two controlled from the UK and one controlled locally.”

Although the recent investigation by Peter Scott QC has concluded that no attempts had been made to mislead the courts with regards the appointment of the Interim Victims Commissioner, Bertha McDougall, victims are still in limbo according to Ulster Unionist MLA, Tom Elliott.

Mr. Elliott added that as the appointment was still regarded as a gesture to entice the DUP into the assembly it was ” completely mind-boggling” that the party, with the support of Sinn Fein, had recently rejected his calls to implement the recommendations of Mrs. McDougall’s report.

In a statement the Fermanagh and South Tyrone assemblyman said: “It appears to be a given that the DUP had a large part to play in the appointment of Bertha McDougall as Interim Victims Commissioner. In my view, and I believe the view of victims’ groups, the resulting report did make some very worthwhile recommendations for improving the lives of those who have suffered most from the troubles.

“However, when I and my UUP colleague, Danny Kennedy, brought a motion to the assembly that these proposals should be implemented the reaction from the DUP, particularly their leader, was most unexpected. From the defensive tone of the First Minister it became evident that for an assemblyman to even question such a pressing matter was almost beneath contempt in the eyes of the department he shares with Martin McGuinness.

“Indeed, my concerns with regards this issue were originally raised when the OFMDFM committee had an opportunity to question the First and Deputy First Minister. The response I received from the First Minister indicated then that Mrs. McDougall’s successor would be announced before the assembly’s recess and that the process had been commenced before devolution was in place. More importantly, was the indication that the successor would not be bound by the recommendations contained within the report by Mrs. McDougall.”

Tom continued by adding: “Victims were promised that the post of Victims Commissioner would be filled by early July, did the First Minister mean this July? This issue has been allowed to drift and drift, a vital part of moving forward involves addressing the needs of victims and survivors. Mrs. McDougall has produced a commendable report and I think it is vital that substantive moves are made now with regards this matter if the Province is to progress out of years of conflict.”

In conclusion Tom said: “I think I speak for many when I say how puzzling it is that the DUP have appeared to drop the ball on this issue, especially when they were completely adamant that they had defined the terms of play.”

Billy Armstrong, the Ulster Unionist MLA for Mid-Ulster said that it was clear from recent words and deeds that senior DUP figures had finally accepted that the Ulster Unionist Party was right to go down the road of the Belfast Agreement to bring stability to Northern Ireland.

What was all the Rev Willie McCrea’s Huffing and Puffing about when the DUP has now accepted the principles set out by the Ulster Unionist Party in 1998?
Mr Armstrong said,
“Back in 1998 when the Ulster Unionist Party negotiated the Belfast Agreement, the Party strategy was to bring an end to violence and to lock both Nationalism in general and Sinn Fein in particular, into an internal settlement.

It was not an easy decision. The right ones rarely are. The Ulster Unionist Party was heavily criticised by many within the Unionist political class for even talking to Sinn Fein, and after the signing of the Belfast Agreement and the restoration of Devolved Government to Northern Ireland, we came under constant criticism from certain unionist quarters on a number of fronts.

The Ulster Unionist Party and their supporters would be the first to admit that the Belfast Agreement wasn’t perfect. But it was a genuine attempt to break the deadlock and end the decades of violence which brought such misery and suffering to this Province. Simply standing outside the gates and hiding behind slogans such as “No” or “Never, never, never” were never going to achieve anything of consequence for the Unionist community.

Having removed themselves from the Forum talks in 1996/97, the DUP sought to prey on the fears of the Unionist community and promote deeper mistrust of the nationalist community - and then pledged to smash both Sinn Féin and the Belfast Agreement, demonising the Ulster Unionist party in the process, and further dividing the Unionist people- giving Sinn Fein the opportunity to rise further electorally.

I believe that actions really do speak louder than words, and whatever spin the DUP may try to put on their current position, there is no doubt whatsoever that they have accepted the Belfast Agreement.

I also believe that Unionist electorate will see for themselves what the DUP have supposedly delivered in their ‘Fair Deal’, and to ask themselves if all the poison and bitterness that was created within Unionist politics were justified.

There is one crucial difference between the 1998 Belfast Agreement and the DUP’s recent deal. The Ulster Unionists’ Deal was with the SDLP, who were then the leading party of Northern Nationalism.
The DUP indulged in a great deal of chest-beating and posturing vowing to smash Sinn Fein and the Agreement, and decrying the Ulster Unionists as traitors and pushovers. Having condemned us as traitors for doing a deal with the SDLP, as a result of the DUP’s ‘Getting it Right’ negotiations, Sinn Fein themselves were installed at the very heart of Government in Northern Ireland, in the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister. And let us not forget, this was done less than a year after a public pledge that Sinn Fein would enter Government “over our dead bodies”.

They have quietly dropped all manner of the supposed “pre-conditions” which they set before they would enter Government with Sinn Fein. They never got photographic evidence of decommissioning, they entered Government with Sinn Fein while the IRA Army Council were still in existence, and they accepted the d’Hondt mechanism for selecting the Executive even though a previous manifesto had said this was “out of the question.”

Now leading elected DUP figures happily pose beside Sinn Fein Ministers at Stormont and further a field. When the DUP Ministers went to Armagh to participate in the recent North South Ministerial Council meeting, they were participating in the very same NSMC which was set up under the Belfast Agreement, and which they so publicly castigated. The unavoidable fact is that the architecture of the Belfast Agreement is intact, and is being operated by the DUP, who rode to power on the back of promises to smash it.

Whilst it is heartening to see the DUP accepting the Belfast Agreement, even though ten years on, I cannot help but reflect on the nine wasted years. What was all Willie McCrea’s Huffing and Puffing about?
Now that DUP have accepted the Ulster Unionist analysis in 1998 instead of nine years later, we could have acted as a united Unionist voice in the talks and in the first Assembly and Executive.

The Unionist community can face the future in Northern Ireland with confidence. Northern Ireland’s peoples’ destiny is now in their own hands within a devolved Northern Ireland Assembly - Sinn Fein are tied into an internal settlement and violence has ended. Those who stayed outside the talks in 1997 did not achieve this. It was brought about by the foresight of those Ulster Unionists who created the Belfast Agreement that the DUP condemned, but are now implementing as if it were their own.

Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, has called on the Stormont Executive to ensure the needs of students are put first as the constituency’s three institutes of further and higher education merge on 1st August to form the Northern Regional College.

Dr Coulter, who was himself a college lecturer for 18 years, served as a member of the first Assembly’s Further and Higher Education and Training Committee.

“We in North Antrim will witness the merger of three institutes which have served the constituency exceptionally well over the years – Causeway, North East and East Antrim.

“We all wish the new senior management and governing body every success during this new period in further education in North Antrim.

“Whilst I know the staff and management will continue to provide the highest quality of education for the students, I would be concerned that this merger programme would place the new Super Tech in a financial straitjacket, forcing the new management to make cuts in both staff and course provision.

“In such a situation, it is always the students who suffer most. This is why I am appealing directly to the Stormont Executive to ensure it adopts the ethos of Putting Students First when it comes to funding these mergers.

“I would also call on the Executive not to use the forthcoming FE mergers as an excuse to ‘downsize’ the valuable role of the local ‘Techs’ in the life of the constituency.”

And he also called on everyone in the constituency to support their local campuses of Further and Higher Education to ensure their continued futures.

Assemblyman Dr Coulter said the local ‘Techs’ serving North Antrim had progressed over the years to become some of the central hubs in the constituency’s educational sector.

“The concepts of lifelong learning and adult education are vital to building an efficiently trained workforce in our constituency. Clearly one of the implications of such mergers will be to identify areas where savings can be made in administrative duplication in FE.

“This is so that the cash saved can be spent on the educational needs of the community and the development of our constituency’s new Northern Regional College in particular.

“It is vital this merger process does not become a blueprint by the Executive to downsize the FE sector in Northern Ireland. It is equally important there is no attempt to ‘dumb down’ the types of courses and training which our institutes provide.

“The FE sector has played a vital role in the life of the community in the North Antrim area and funding should be made available so that the campuses can continue to stand at the centre of our community. The importance of the role of FE in the community has not been fully recognised by educational theorists.

“FE, through the ‘Techs’ and now the regional college, has made a major contribution to society in the region. It gave young people - who perhaps had not achieved as well as they would have liked at school - another chance to carve out a meaningful career with recognised qualifications.

“FE has also made a significant contribution in the non-vocational sector where young people were allowed to develop a satisfying and worthwhile hobby or educational interest alongside an older generation.

“The present set-up in the FE sector is cash driven. This has denied the community many of its non-vocational classes. The ‘pay as you learn’ system being adopted is a copycat approach to an American educational system and I do not think it will achieve the objectives being set out by educational theorists.

“FE should be a blend of the vocational and non-vocational aspirations of the community and our campuses in North Antrim should be at the centre of activity throughout the week in the community.

“However, the community has its role to play, too, in ensuring the future of its local campus. It can support its local campus by enrolling in part-time or full-time classes which will benefit their learning experience or advance their qualifications.

“There continues to be much speculation about this rationalisation programme within the FE sector. As members of the community, it is imperative that all of us, young and old alike, play our part in the fight to ensure the future of the Northern Regional College campuses which serve our North Antrim constituency,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter.

Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, has congratulated Broughshane on winning its recent Best Kept Small Town in Ireland Award, describing the achievement as making “Broughshane a beacon for the whole Northern Ireland community to follow”.

Assemblyman Dr Coulter, himself a former Mayor of Ballymena for three terms in the mid 1990s, said it was “not surprising” Broughshane had scooped this presitigious award, given the “superb portfolio” of accolades the village had achieved over the years.

He added: “We are now living in an era when caring for our environment and keeping our localities neat and tidy are becoming major community issues.

“Broughshane has become a shining example of how people from the local community can bond together to take a real pride in the appearance and environmental development of their neighbourhoods.

“I would highly commend the sterling example of Broughshane to other local communities throughout our North Antrim constituency and wholeheartedly congratulate all the residents of Broughshane who helped bring this magnificent honour to the region,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter.

Ulster Unionist Assembly member David McClarty says Coleraine should be seizing the opportunity to enhance the experience of visiting its new tribute to footballer Bertie Peacock.

Speaking after the unveiling of a statue of former Northern Ireland and Celtic star Peacock, the East Londonderry MLA said: “In the past when Bertie Peacock owned a bar in Coleraine some of his football jerseys were on display. It attracted football people from all over the world.

“I think it would add significantly to our potential to attract new visitors if we could set up a football visitors centre or themed restaurant featuring the story of the town’s great football tradition.

“We not only have Bertie Peacock from our town but Harry Gregg and Jim Platt too. The he late Sammy Walker a past president of the Irish Football Association, was a legislator at international level for many years.

“We also have the story of 25 years of the Milk Cup tournament to tell and the history of the local Irish League football club which produced so many top players such as Allan Hunter and Iam McFaul.

“I would welcome the opportunity to discus this idea with people of vision in the area.

“An enterprising local business person might consider opening a restaurant with a football theme in the Diamond area close to the new statue of Bertie Peacock where some of his jerseys and photographs could be permanently displayed. This would give visitors an added experience when they visit the nearby statue.

“We have a rich history of football in the area and in an era where new ideas are always being explored in an attempt to attract visitors, a football visitors centre would be something worth exploring.

Marking the end of Operation Banner – the Army’s 38-year active deployment in Northern Ireland – Ulster Unionist Party Leader Sir Reg Empey has expressed his gratitude to the Army for their service and sacrifice.

Sir Reg said, “the people of Northern Ireland owe a debt of profound gratitude to the Army. Over 700 military personnel paid the supreme sacrifice during Operation Banner, defending society in this part of the United Kingdom against terrorism and paramilitarism. Today, as Operation Banner ends, our thoughts and prayers are with the families of too many young soldiers who died in the cities, towns and villages of Northern Ireland, protecting the community against those who sought to undermine democracy through ruthless violence.

“Operation Banner – the deployment of the military in aid of the civil power – prevented a deeper descent into chaos and madness during the dark years of Northern Ireland’s Troubles. Without the deployment and professionalism of the Army, supporting the Royal Ulster Constabulary, our society in Northern Ireland would have endured even greater violence and bloodshed.

“The return of the military garrison in Northern Ireland to the numbers and duties seen anywhere else in the United Kingdom, is a sign that we enjoy peace and normality far beyond what many would have ever imagined possible. Without Operation Banner it is difficult to envisage how the Northern Ireland of 2007 would be a peaceful, normal part of the United Kingdom.

“Those of us who lived through the worst of the Troubles, the generation that has come of age since 1998, and the generations to come, owe much to the young men and women who donned our country’s uniform and put themselves in harm’s way for our sake during Operation Banner”.

Ulster Unionist Agriculture and Rural Development spokesman, Tom Elliott, has responded with a cautious welcome to the recent announcement by the Agriculture Minister which outlined her department’s plans to reduce the number of livestock inspections per farm business.

The vice-chairman of the Assembly’s Agricultural committee also added that in his view the issue of agricultural red-tape was only beginning to be effectively addressed by government.

In a statement the Fermanagh and South Tyrone assemblyman said: “The announcement by the Minister that livestock inspections are to be reduced to one for each farm inspected is a step in the right direction. The issue of cross-compliance inspections is one that I have raised on several occasions in the Assembly Agriculture committee as many farmers have contacted me regarding the hindrance that they can represent.

“I am also glad that more veterinary staff are to be reassigned on the ground as this should help improve engagement between farmers and the department, this should in turn help ensure that minor problems can be addressed in a more informal manner thus reducing penalties further down the line.

“On the issue of penalties these must be kept proportionate to the level of breach, the level of flexibility and willingness to work with farmers to prevent them inadvertently making mistakes is an aspect of the system that requires attention.”

The UUP MLA continued: “Earlier this year I and my UUP colleague, George Savage, brought a debate to the assembly on SFP delays. During that debate I made mention of the fact that the Minister was planning to increase the percentage of farms inspected from 5 per cent to 7.5 per cent of total SFP applications. This latest announcement must therefore be taken in the context of other inspections that businesses are still having to face.

“I have also made repeated demands that inspections are carried out in a timely manner, for example before the end of the calendar year, to have inspections dragged out over many months is not acceptable for farmers and has yet to be addressed.”

In conclusion Tom added: “I look forward to these improvements coming into effect, but will continue to push this issue in our committee to ensure that the burden of bureaucracy is reduced to a level that more fairly balances the needs of all stakeholders. The real willingness of government to reduce needless bureaucracy can only be judged by the experiences of the farming community on the ground, and at the moment their assessment would not be overly positive.”

Ulster Unionist North Down councillor Marion Smith has welcomed the publication by the British Medical Assocation of a report on domestic abuse and violence. The report is the work in the BMA’s Board of Science and is evidence of the seriousness with which the medical professions view the health and social impacts of domestic violence.

Mrs. Smith said, “the BMA’s report is an important contribution to the ongoing challenge facing our society to confront the reality of domestic violence. The report makes for sobering reading. Alongside the fear and threats endured by women because of violence in the home, the report estimates that domestic violence costs our society and economy over £30billion every year. There is also the tragic figure of 750,00 children who witness domestic abuse - and approximately half of these children are themselves also victims of abuse. The dangerous lie that domestic violence is a private matter cannot stand in light of such statistics.

“The report’s calls for doctors and other medical professionals should receive training on identifying and enquiring about domestic abuse, urges a multi-agency approach to addressing domestic violence, and shows that victims of domestic abuse want doctors to be able to refer them to specialist services. It also importantly calls for strategies to identify and reduce the impact made by domestic abuse on the lives of women and children.

“In recent Assembly debate on domestic violence, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey demonstrated his commitment to tackling the issue and giving resources to support women facing violence at home. The BMA’s report shows the need for such action - and for continued action by the Executive to address an issue that scars the lives of too many families across Northern Ireland”.

The report can be read at http://www.bma.org.uk/ap.nsf/AttachmentsByTitle/PDFdomesticabuse/$FILE/DomesticAbuse.pdf