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Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, has said the Executive should not use the lower birth rates as an opportunity to cut teacher numbers in its bid to make financial savings in education.

Assemblyman Dr Coulter, who served as a member of the first Assembly’s Further and Higher Education and Training Committee and was himself a college lecturer for 18 years, emphasised that public services should be governed by quality and not just cost-effectiveness.

He added that there was “an urgent need” for the Executive to begin making major choices in the direction of quality delivery of public services.

Dr Coulter continued: “In the next decade, school pupil numbers will decline as a result of lower birth rates. Instead of seeing this as an opportunity to cut down on the number of teachers and save money, the Executive should be using this as an opportunity to cut down on class sizes. This would be a positive decision in favour of quality.

“The Finnish and Danish education systems are widely recognised as among the best in the world. They also have the lowest class sizes. The Office for Standards in Education has shown that this is a key feature of education in both Finland and Denmark.

“Similarly, the Health Service should be governed by quality and not be continually eating its head off in a fatuous attempt to achieve targets which are doing little more than keeping armies of bureaucrats in jobs.

“We are going to have to shift education, training, health and all our public services on to a quality footing otherwise we cannot hope to compete with low wage economies in the Far East.

“Instead, we should be focusing more on innovation and quality and on building a high-tech, high-value added economy like the Scandanavian countries.

“We should also be looking at ways to rebuild the cohesiveness of our society and introducing a greater sense of order and responsibility among our people,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter.

Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, has warned that thousands of people may leave Ulster if the Executive does not take radical steps to help potential home owners get on the property ladder.

Assemblyman Dr Coulter was reacting to the news the controversial Planning Policy Statement 14 (PPS14) limiting the building of new single dwellings in the countryside was to be axed.

He said the scrapping of PPS14 did not mean that first time buyers would find it easier to get onto the property ladder.

The North Antrim MLA hoped the end of PPS14 “would not automatically mean that housing developers would try and swamp rural areas of the constituency”.

He added it was “vitally important” the demise of PPS14 would be used constructively by the farming community to provide rural dwelling for agricultural families.

However, Dr Coulter warned: “Just as Northern Ireland has seen the so-called brain drain among young people being forced to leave the Province because of a lack of higher education places, so too, there is the very real danger our young people will have to abandon Ulster to find an affordable first rung on the property ladder.

“All evidence points to the fact that first-time buyers are being priced out of the market. There are very grave consequences if the Executive fails to address the situation.

“The Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors recently revealed housing in Northern Ireland increased by 36% in a 12-month period; the largest increase of any European region of Europe.”

But, said Dr Coulter, wages had not increased by that same percentage in Northern Ireland. “First time buyers receive hit after hit, whether that be the proposed home-value rates increases, or the proposed water taxes. The costs of living in Northern Ireland outweigh the income most young people could possibly aspire to generate.

“In the last 10 years, average house prices in Northern Ireland have tripled. Affordable housing is the key to countering poverty, and the inability to access decent, affordable housing impacts significantly on quality of life.

“There is undoubtedly a shortfall in the housing stock available for first-time buyers. While PPS14, threatened sustainable rural communities, its ending should not signal a glut in rural dwellings by developers.

“We need an affordable housing strategy, not the countryside being blighted with expensive and random developments.

“Young people are finding great difficulties remaining in areas in which their families and the generations before them lived.

“In the private rented sector, I would also support the registration of all landlords by the Housing Executive as well as statutory registration of houses in multiple occupation as this would curb those who abuse the system.

“The Executive must give serious consideration to implementing a similar policy to that of the Scottish Executive where in areas identified as having affordable housing needs, up to 25% of houses in new developments are for rent at low cost ownership,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter.

In response to rising animal feed prices, Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson has encouraged consumers in Northern Ireland to support local farmers by making the choice at the supermarket to buy local pig and poultry produce first.

Mr Nicholson also welcomed the emergency meeting held last night by the Ulster’s Farmer’s Union in Cookstown, which sought to highlight the issue and the grave crisis facing our pig and poultry producers.

In a statement Mr Nicholson said,

“Buying locally produced food is one way consumers in Northern Ireland can help to support our pig and poultry farmers who, because of huge increases in animal feed prices, are experiencing tough times at the minute. Supermarkets will also have to respond immediately to these worsening market conditions.

“Events on the global stage and at a local level are conspiring against the farming industry in Northern Ireland. The poor weather and flooding during the summer coupled with drought in some of the Southern Hemisphere countries and an increase in demand from the biofuel sector are driving feed prices through the roof and Europe’s zero tolerance approach to GMO produced grain is simply compounding matters further.

“As I warned last week, we have been used, over the past 20 years or so, to low food prices and the availability of an abundance of food within the EU but as the butter and Milk Mountains have melted away, what we could be left facing in Europe in the next 10 to 15 years is a real issue over food security.”

North Down Ulster Unionist MLA Leslie Cree can confirm that to date the Woodland Trust in their Tree Planting for All Campaign has engaged a total of 25,000 people in tree planting initiatives across the Province.

The politician continued “This is a great achievement for the Woodland Trust. Two hundred and fifty acres of new woodlands have been developed with a total of 200,000 trees planted in the fist three year phase of this ambitious campaign,” he said.

Mr Cree stressed that “Northern Ireland currently ranks as one of the least wooded regions in Europe with total tree coverage of only 6% compared with the European average of 44%. We need to do all we can to help environmental groups to motivate this and future generations,” he added.

“I understand that Government have committed to help increase tree coverage in Northern Ireland over the next fifty years. I would however suggest that plans should be brought forward to address this shortfall now, “he urged.

Continuing he said “I will be taking steps to encourage my colleagues in the NI Assembly to address this issue as a matter of priority given the distressing fact that Northern Ireland lags behind considerably in terms of tree impact on this island. I think it is only but right to support the work of the Woodland Trust and others who work tirelessly to educate and motivate people to become more environmentally active.”

“Let us begin now to try and make a difference so that by 2011 when the Tree for All Campaign is completed we will have statistics that will rise above the current 6%.” By planting more trees we are actively addressing the serious impact of global warming as each tree planted significantly improves air quality by reducing CO2 emissions into the atmosphere.”

Speaking in the Assembly on a motion condemning all attacks on Orange Halls and calling on all political parties to use their influence to stop such sectarian attacks, UUP Newry and Armagh MLA Danny Kennedy said,

“I welcome this important debate and at the outset, I am proud to confirm that I am a member of the Orange Order from County Armagh.

It cannot have escaped the attention of everyone in this Assembly that this motion is being debated on 9/11, the anniversary of the appalling attacks on the USA, which ushered in a new and terrible age of world terrorism. This new age of terrorism began at a time when we thought our own terrorist troubles were coming to a close.

The very clear evidence of continuing sectarian bigotry, which manifests itself in attacks on Orange Halls is so unacceptable. Attacks on Orange Halls represent an attempt by Republicans to intimidate, bully and threaten the Unionist and Protestant cultural tradition, and they are entirely out of place in an age and under a new dispensation when all cultural traditions should be mutually respected and equally valued. It is the policy of “Brits Out” taken to one of its most extreme forms. That is just not on.

There must be no tolerance shown towards the people who carry out these attacks. It doesn’t take much common sense to see that these attacks could cost us some of the prosperity this Province is entitled to after so many long, hard years of conflict. We must not and cannot allow the mindless cave men and women who carry out such attacks any opportunity to jeopardise the relative peace we now enjoy. Their actions have no place in a decent society.

That is why there is no reason to protect the people who carry out these attacks. They are dangerous people and they need to be apprehended, caught and convicted and jailed for a long term. Communities must not shield them and republican political leaders must demonstrate their credibility as peacemakers by using every effort to have those responsible handed over to the lawful authorities – the PSNI.

That means that all the community influence which a political party wields, and in some cases, that is considerable, must be used in having these attacks on Orange Halls stopped for good. None of us can be half-in and half-out of this process, supporting law and order only when it suits us and not just when it doesn’t upset some of our supporters. There is nothing more insidious and damaging to the whole political process here than a partial application of the principles of law and order.

Make no mistake about it the world is watching. It is observing. Every attack on an Orange Hall, every sectarian incident is logged by overseas investors. It is still reported in the world’s press in places sometimes that seem unlikely to us. The eyes that are scrutinising these events are not casual observers, they are potential investors. When they ask questions – like has the trouble really stopped? – then we better sit up and listen.

We cannot afford a society which is frayed around the edges with the residue of lawlessness hanging over from the troubled past. There must be no harming our potential to attract inward investment

The best way to effectively marginalise individuals or groups who indulge in these attacks on Orange Halls is by informing the Police. That is the way to deal with such activities. For the nationalist / republican community to do this would help build a lasting peace and would help convince the unionist-minded community that they are sincere about a shared future.

We need action from Sinn Fein – not words

No-one who wants peace and order in a new shared-future society will want these attacks continuing. The many hundreds of attacks over the years, which bizarrely accelerated after the original IRA ceasefire leading right up to the attacks this summer do nothing to create a just society or a lasting peace.

Few things annoy the Unionist people more than the deliberate act of malicious damage against their Orange Halls which effectively serve as community halls, whether in Carnagh or Crosskeys or Mullinture as happened this summer in my constituency, or Seagoe, the most recently destroyed hall in Co Armagh. I say to republicans in particular, stop burning our Orange Halls, start building real peace.”

Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson has described today’s decision in the High Court to overturn the controversial planning regulation PPS 14 as a ‘victory for Northern Ireland’s rural communities.’

However, he warned that now was the time to address the serious flaws in the planning service, which Mr Nicholson says are “plagued by a lack of accountability and crippling delays.”

In a statement Mr Nicholson said,

“I fully recognise the need for a balanced and pragmatic planning policy which meets the needs and requirements of our fast and ever–changing rural and urban communities. However, communities and families in rural areas across Northern Ireland have suffered greatly because of the ill thought out PPS 14.

“The proposals were too restrictive and didn’t even allow for farm families to build family dwellings on their property. Instead we must have a policy which balances development in rural areas with the need to preserve the character and heritage of those areas. The Government failed to get the consent of rural communities at the outset and as such the regulation was always going to be fatally undermined.

“The Environment Minister must now find an acceptable alternative, which reflects those concerns and also use the opportunity to address the serious flaws in the planning service.

“The current state of the service leaves me hugely dissatisfied. It has failed to serve the public in a transparent, effective and accountable manner. The backlog of proposals is now so high that arguably the system is on the verge of meltdown.

“Delays have brought the planning process to its knees. So much so that development opportunities are put at risk or missed altogether. Delays in the planning process are frustrating job creation, economic development and are partly responsible for a significant shortfall in economic growth in Northern Ireland. Problems with planning are having a destabilising effect on the rural economy compounded by young people not entering the agricultural industry, as they do not see it as a viable career option.”

Following todays debate at the Assembly Ulster Unionist MLA has said that it is important to recognise that the future economic prosperity of Fermanagh and the West of the Province is not confined to just the Department of Enterprise trade and Investment.

Mr Elliott said: “One of the greatest drawbacks to providing a stronger economic base is our roads and transport infrastructure.

“In Fermanagh the road network is self evident by the sheer volume of HGV traffic that make up the daily traffic flow.
“In the county town of Enniskillen the gridlock that occurs during peak times is without doubt a negative in terms of those operating in business or industry by adding to journey times, increasing fuel consumption and resulting in unnecessary additional carbon emissions and pollution.

“A report published in April 2002, commissioned by Fermanagh District Council entitled “Assessment of Dependence on Transportation Infrastructure” gave great insight into this important issue, and although it is over five years old I would suspect that the majority of the concerns expressed in that study remain largely unaddressed by government.

“The report noted that the investment in our roads is lower relative to England, Scotland, Wales and the Republic of Ireland, of specific interest to this motion was the lack of strategic corridors linking the border regions with the rest of the Province.

“Furthermore consultees from business and industry made it quite clear that the state of the roads network was negatively impacting upon competitiveness.

“Sectors which represent a large proportion of private business in the west, manufacturing, quarrying and other heavy industries have a high reliance on the road network for moving raw materials or finished products and the costs imposed by poor infrastructure do place a pressure on such enterprises that threatens profitability.

“When this assembly is trying to bring about a reduced reliance on public sector employment, trying to increase private enterprise it is key that what the Province is good at, what it can export globally at high return does not have obstacles put in its way by the lack of joined up thinking and investment in our roads.

“In the study 53.7% of the local businesses consulted had transport costs representing over 20% of their overheads, for over 75% of the firms the costs were over 10% of overheads.

Tom concluded: “We must recognise that one of the greatest negative factors facing the local economy is the roads and transport infrastructure.”

Following the ruling of the High Court on the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs), Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Assembly Party and Chair of the Committee of OFMDFM, Danny Kennedy MLA, has given his initial response.

In a statement Mr. Kennedy said,

“The Ulster Unionist Party will carefully examine the judgment of the Court on the SORs. As seen in the debate in the Assembly earlier this year, there is significant uncertainty within Northern Ireland as to whether Peter Hain in this legislation struck the correct balance between various rights.

Equality before the law is a fundamental UUP principle. We are therefore completely opposed to unfair discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. We also recognize the importance in a pluralist society of protecting the rights of conscience and religious belief, and the need to respect of the ethos of faith-based organizations”.