Archive for October 3rd, 2007
Ulster Unionist Leader Sir Reg Empey has appointed Robin Swann senior member of North Antrim’s management committee as a party spokesperson on the Social Economy, Energy and Consumer affairs.
In a statement Mr Swann outlined his priorities in the policy areas he will be covering,
“With regards to Energy and coming from a farming background I know that ‘Renewable energies’ will become more and more significant to the Northern Ireland economy.
On the Social Economy remit having served as President of the Young Farmers Clubs, sitting as a director of Rural Support and as Vice-chairman of Rural Youth Europe, I have always been a strong supporter of the voluntary sector and their contribution to the social fabric of Northern Ireland.
On Consumer Affairs, I would be looking at the scope of Trading Standards, especially with the large amount of counterfeit goods around and analysing the work of Trading Standards/Consumer Council.”
Continue Reading E-mail October 3rd, 2007
Sir Reg Empey MLA
Upper Bann Ulster Unionist Assembly Member George Savage MLA today spoke out in support of classroom assistants in Upper Bann. Speaking after visiting a few local schools and speaking to several classroom assistants, George said:
“I pledge my full and unequivocal support for classroom assistants. The Education Boards and the Department of Education have let them down badly. This issue should have been resolved long before now. The Boards should readily agree to make the required additional payments as they know that that as the education system has evolved over the years, so has the importance of the role of Classroom Assistant. Classroom Assistants are a vital link in the education chain and as such they deserve to be valued and thus fairly paid for their efforts.”
The cost of making the additional payments to the 7000+ Classroom Assistants is small compared to the vast budgets of the 5 Boards which currently stands at over £1Billion.
In light of this, surely the Boards have the funds available to meet the needs of the Classroom Assistants. In fact if look at the money the Boards have wasted since the decision to have a single education authority (ESA) then the funding is most definitely there:
Continue Reading E-mail October 3rd, 2007
George Savage
Paula Bradshaw, UUP Urban Regeneration spokesperson is today calling on Arlene Foster to provide more assurances that Phase two of the Titanic Quarter, for which outline planning permission has been granted, will actually match up to the hype being created.
In a statement Paula, who is also the Director of the Greater Village Regeneration Trust in South Belfast, said,
“There is talk of 2000 new residential units for the development, some of them are being described as affordable homes and social dwellings: in the absence of a defined government policy on how the “affordable homes” agenda is to be rolled out, pending the adoption of the recommendations of the Interdepartmental Affordability Review Implementation Group currently considering Semple’s report, it is unclear as to how this is to be implemented and enforced.
In the case of “social housing” provision it is evident from the Laganside example in Belfast’s government-led inner-city urban regeneration processes this tends to equate to single unit dwellings. The Ulster Unionist Party is calling for assurances that lifetime home standards are incorporated into the overall development. There is an urgent need to provide family size houses in East Belfast, particularly so close to the City centre. Families provide a sense of stability and the bedrock of any sustainable community. With falling roll numbers in the local primary schools, for example, it is important that the Titanic development contributes to the reversal of the population decline.
If the 2000 residential units are small apartments then there will be the usual rush from private investors and landlords seeking to make a profit from the project that is being hailed as a turning point for Belfast’s economy. The families of Belfast should be the real winners from this new development by being encouraged to set up home here.”
Continue Reading E-mail October 3rd, 2007
Press Office
Speaking to the North Lurgan Branch of Upper Bann UUP tonight, a sceptical UUP Leader Sir Reg Empey said he would approach talks with the DUP in good faith but cast doubt over the merits of the UUP subsuming into the DUP.
Sir Reg said,
“Eoghan Harris raised a few eyebrows at the Reform Club last Friday, when he argued in favour of a merger between the UUP and DUP.
Never let it be said that the UUP expects our guests to toe the line and say only what we want to hear!
But he did raise some points that need to be addressed.
The timing of the invitation from Nigel Dodd’s to the UUP’s Officers, for talks with the DUP (an invitation that Eoghan regarded as an encouraging development) was interesting:
It came late on that Friday afternoon, when it was becoming clear that there could be a major difficulty for Dr. Paisley at that night’s meeting of his free Presbyterian ruling council.
It came on the same day that rumours were circulating that Jim Allister and others were preparing to set up a vehicle for disaffected DUP members and supporters.
The news of the invitation was released to the media before I had time to read it.
And let us not forget that the DUP knows that this party is in the final stages of an internal review and reform exercise. I had to bear in mind that they were possibly throwing a spanner into our works, holding out the prospect of accommodation and pact at the very time we were preparing to re-launch ourselves.
But taking all of that into consideration, the leadership team of the Ulster Unionist Party decided to test the bona fides of the DUP and what they had to offer for unionism and the Union. But let no-one kid themselves that this is some sort of launching pad for unionist unity at this stage.
The previous and best time for unionist co-operation was in the 1996-1998 period, when the Belfast Agreement was being negotiated. It would have been so much better had the DUP stayed on board at that stage – particularly in light of the fact that they are more or less in precisely the position that the UUP negotiated almost alone. I heard no talk of pacts and co-operation in March of this year, when the DUPs only agenda seemed to be the destruction of Ulster Unionists and the accommodation of Sinn Fein.
So it is tempting to draw the conclusion that the DUP – which has quite a few problems on its plate at the moment – regards inter-unionist co-operation now as a means to a particular end; namely entrenching its own dominance at our expense.
It is interesting too to note the receptive noises of Jeffrey Donaldson, one of the people responsible for so much internal damage to the UUP!
As Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, I need to bear in mind also that there tens of thousands within the pro-Union community who never have, or maybe never will, vote for the DUP.”
Continue Reading E-mail October 3rd, 2007
Sir Reg Empey MLA
