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North Down Ulster Unionist Leslie Cree has dished out one of his favourite recipes to help a local Cancer Charity raise vital funds.

The MLA has been approached as one of the 108 MLA’s in the Northern Ireland Assembly to reveal his favourite recipe for inclusion in a recipe collection ‘An Assembly of Recipes’.

The novel idea has been developed by a local Cancer Research N I Charity Committee in Portaferry who hope to raise an extra £20,000 in order to reach their target figure of £100.000.

“Cancer Research Northern Ireland does excellent work across the Province and local groups are invaluable in helping them raise vital resources for local research into the disease”.

“I am more than happy to support the Portaferry Committee in sending them my favourite dish”, said the MLA.

“I love cooking but being a politician I get very little opportunity to prepare my favourite dishes at home commented Mr Cree.”

“At this stage I will not divulge anything more about my favourite recipe other than it is a fish dish said Mr Cree. Everyone will have to wait until the Charity Cookbook becomes available for sale,” he said.

“I wish the local group every success in their enterprise. I look forward with interest the completion of the cookbook so that I can gain an insight into Members’ choices of their favourite foods.”

Speaking today after a heated meeting of the Regional Development Committee at which Margaret Ritchie outlined the difficulties she faced in solving Social Housing problems with her limited budget, UUP Regional Development Spokesman and North Belfast MLA Fred Cobain said in a statement,

“I agreed with the Minister that the draft budget was woefully inadequate in a field which the Executive identified as a priority - housing.

This budget is the worst budget for housing I have seen in the last number of years. The number of people presenting themselves as homeless is going to increase because this budget does not address that. You have to conclude that is deliberate.

We need to tackle poverty at a number of roots. Social Housing provision must continue to grow. It is estimated that Northern Ireland needs between 2000-2500 new houses to meet the growing numbers of homeless people. The Department of Social Development is building just 600

The Housing Executive is not to wholly to blame given their tight financial constraints, the root cause, I believe, is decades of under-investment by successive governments.

One of life’s most basic rights is a decent place to live. Currently to a great many people this is a right that is denied to them. The draft Budget does not do enough to start tackling the problem. If the draft budget stays at is I can foresee the sight of a great many more homeless people on the streets of Northern Ireland and all the efficiency savings and other DUP and Sinn Fein buzzwords won’t be able to change that.

Priorities are in fact not priorities. An example: under the last Executive the OFMDFM budget was £32m – under Peter Robinson’s Draft Budget it has risen to £73.9m. That says all we need to know about priorities.“

Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, has called for the smoking age limit to be raised to 19.

Dr Coulter, who is also UUP Health Spokesman, was speaking in support of an Assembly motion noting the increase in the age restrictions on purchasing tobacco that has been implemented in Great Britain, and calling on the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to implement the same age restriction in Northern Ireland, as a matter or urgency.

Assemblyman Dr Coulter added: “The current age restriction of 16 years was established in 1937, at a time when the health dangers of smoking were unknown.

“A clear body of evidence from the British Medical Association, which was highlighted in 2006 when the issue was debated in Scotland, shows that addiction increases the earlier a person begins to smoke. The earlier in life a person smokes, the harder it is for them to give it up.

“In 2006, the BMA also called for an increase in the age at which people could buy drink or cigarettes. It is important to bracket those two addiction problems together, because they both account for a great deal of the spending in the Health Service budget.

“It is also important to note the threat of passive smoking. It is not simply the potential smokers who will benefit from an increase in the age at which tobacco can be purchased: day and daily, the people around them will benefit.

“The BMA’s ‘Adolescent Health’ report, published in 2003, argues that reducing the availability of cigarettes through age restrictions not only helps to reduce tobacco use, but when reinforced by the establishment of smoke-free public places and backed by media campaigns and school programmes, can reduce what the BMA called ‘the prevalence of smoking’.

“Such an integrated approach is more likely to succeed, since it recognises the complex causes of smoking, especially in relation to adolescent behaviour.

“Another example of that integrated approach can be found on the island of Guernsey, which offers a smoking quit-line, backed by free nicotine patches.

“Fining shopkeepers who sell tobacco to people who are under 18, which was introduced in South Africa, should be considered as part of an integrated approach. That approach has been taken with alcohol and knives, so why not with tobacco?

“It is clear from the statistics that adolescents are the most effective group to target in an anti-smoking drive. Scottish statistics show that 6% of 13-year-olds and 19% of 15-year-olds are regular smokers; approximately 14% of 15-year-old boys and 24% of 15-year-old girls smoke.

“Although that is a reduction from 30% for both boys and girls, the figure remains significantly higher among girls. The changing pattern from 30 years ago is that smoking is a much more persistent problem among teenage and young adult girls than boys.

“The significant gender shift in tobacco addiction is of great concern to the medical profession, as is the prevalence of binge drinking among teenage girls and young-adult women.

“In 2005 and 2006 respectively, the Scottish and Westminster Parliaments passed legislation on this matter; it is only reasonable that the Northern Ireland Assembly follows their examples.

“Australia, Malta, Norway, Finland and the Republic of Ireland all have a purchase age of 18 for tobacco, and South Africa is considering measures to reduce smoking prevalence.

“Six out of eight Canadian provinces set the cigarette purchase age at 19, and several states in the USA are considering raising the legal age from 18 to 19 to stop high-school students buying cigarettes and sharing them with their classmates.

“Action must be taken against substances, such as tobacco and alcohol as well as drugs that significantly impair the health of the people who use them and, in due course, contribute significant additional costs to the Health Service.

“In future, those costs could prove so great that the Health Service would break down. It also raises the spectre of the need for selective treatment for people who use such substances.

“It would be prudent to impose a ban on smoking until the age of 18, or even 19, and to take positive action to improve the level of public health that we all know is necessary to protect the Health Service budget and to look after the well-being of our young people,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter.

Mr Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist Party’s Spokesman on Social Economy, Energy and Consumer Affairs, has congratulated those supermarkets in the Province which have pledged to develop facilities to assist pensioners and older shoppers.

Mr Swann, who is also a senior member of the North Antrim UUP management committee, made his remarks after attending the launch of a major report into the provision of facilities for older people in supermarkets.

He added: “I would thoroughly commend the Consumer Council for its research report which was commissioned in partnership with Age Concern and entitled Silver Service? Are supermarkets meeting the needs of older shoppers?

“I thoroughly welcome this study and congratulate those major supermarkets in Northern Ireland which have pledged their commitment to older shoppers and supported them during the researching of this report.

“But I would strongly urge those supermarkets and retailers which have not signed up to the ‘silver service’ recommendations to do so as a matter of priority.

“It is no longer good enough for retailers just to listen to their customers; they must also take action on what they are being told.

“Both the Consumer Council and Age Concern are to be especially congratulated on this excellent study as it is the first of its kind in the UK , and I hope it sets a standard that retailers will deliver on.

“What is being asked is not an impossible mission, but quite achievable, and is in the interest of the retailers, as older consumers are big payers in the Northern Ireland economy with an estimated annual spending of £5.7 billion.

“The report has highlighted specific areas which should be addressed without delay to make it easier for some older consumers to access food.

“There needs to be a review of portion sizes, as often older people living alone cannot use or afford to purchase large volumes of items so they can not avail of many special offers or discounts for bulk buying.

“There is also a need for affordable, accessible and nutritional food for everyone in today’s society.

“Equally, there is a need for easily identifiable food labeling, which would reflect not just nutritional information, but also pricing, as both these points of clarity were raised as an issue.

“Access to any facility is a prime necessity, and retailers should ensure their premises are easily accessed by older shoppers through either public or private transport,” said Mr Swann.

Rev Dr Robert Coulter, the Ulster Unionist Party Assembly member for North Antrim and UUP Stormont Commissioner, has said parents and schools should co-operate throughout the constituency to ensure children had a nourishing breakfast at the start of each day.

Assemblyman Dr Coulter, who is party health spokesman, said: “The World Health Organisation found in a study of eating habits there is a direct link between student performance and having a healthy breakfast.

“In Britain, only 65.8 to 66.1 per cent of boys and 60.1 to 60.2 per cent of girls eat breakfast. So significantly fewer school children here eat breakfast before school than in most developed countries, yet nutritionists tell us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day,” explained Dr Coulter.

“Though the WHO survey did not extend to Northern Ireland, I believe our children’s diet here would be fairly similar to that of Scotland with a similarly high level of junk food,” added Dr Coulter.

“It is interesting that in Scotland, which has a high level of academic success in Britain, also has the highest rate of eating breakfast. There the percentage of boys and girls eating breakfasts was well above the national average. The Netherlands had the highest rate, but Britain fell behind Lithuania, Russia and Latvia, which have a far lower per capita income,” added Dr Coulter.

“Research has found that eating breakfast has an effect on children’s energy levels and ability to study. The WHO findings come amid concern over a deterioration in the quality of diet and a rise in obesity, often said to be caused by snacking on unsuitable food.

“The United States, which has an even higher rate of childhood obesity than the United Kingdom, was among the bottom two to five countries for eating breakfast at each age stage.

“I believe that parents and schools should combine forces to ensure that children receive a hearty breakfast before they begin the day’s work.

“A good breakfast would be far more important than a school lunch since most schoolwork is completed in the morning session and since that is when the children need maximum brain-power,” said Assemblyman Dr Coulter, himself a further education lecturer for 18 years.

Two Ulster Unionist Assemblymen, Sam Gardiner MLA, the Ulster Unionist Planning Spokesman, and Ken Robinson MLA have called for an end to buy to let mortgages which they said were stacking the odds against the first time buyer and for an extension of the shared equity co-ownership scheme to allow borrowers to take out as little as 25% of the equity in a new home.

“The overheating in the housing market has been caused by buy to let mortgages allowing speculators to mop up a high proportion of the properties first time buyers would normally purchase. This has had the effect of pricing first time buyers, especially young couples, out of the housing market. Buy to let speculators should have to depend on ordinary commercial bank loans.”

“This move should be coupled with an extension of the shared equity scheme available for shared ownership. At present, the most anyone can expect the NI Co-ownership scheme to pay out is 60% of the cost. Yet in England this figure is 75%. If this figure were increased to English levels, that would make a huge difference to young first time buyers.”

“Across Northern Ireland, the average price for a terraced house is £177,000 and the average price for an apartment is £183,000. If we take these last two – a terraced house or an apartment - as the entry point for first time buyers and take an average of the two at £180,000, that would mean that the difference between a 40% lower level of equity and a 25% lower level of equity would be £27,000 – the difference between the first time buyer having to find £72,000 or £45,000.”

“We have only one vehicle for shared ownership and that is the Northern Ireland Co-Ownership Housing Association. This compares to 101 shared ownership housing associations across the rest of the UK. Wales - with a population of some 3 million compared to our population of 1.7 million - has 10 shared ownership housing associations. The answer, however, does not lie in the number of associations but in the range of shared ownership options they offer.”

The MLAs also called for recognition that, with current property prices partly driven by population increases, apartments should be considered as suitable first time homes and there needed to be a cultural shift which recognized this. This, they said, was the norm across Europe.

They also argued that the regional development strategy of allowing infill development of apartments and town houses was “sound,” provided that it did not destroy areas of architectural merit. To impose too many restrictions on infill would be selfish and would deny many young people the chance to get a foot on the first rung of the housing ladder.

“We are not saying there should be no restrictions but we are saying that there should be no blanket restrictions. We need to do something for the first time buyer and if we prohibit building in the countryside and in the towns–where is left?”

Following DUP MLA Tom Buchanan’s decision to dismiss investment in our National Health Service as “simply tossing in more and more money”, UUP South Down MLA and Assembly Health Committee member John McCallister has called on Mr. Buchanan and his colleagues to stop undermining the NHS in Northern Ireland.

Mr. McCallister said, “DUP MLA Tom Buchanan has now joined his colleagues Iris Robinson, Alistair Ross, and Mervyn Story in defending the Finance Minister’s decision not to fund the NHS in Northern Ireland to UK levels. I had expected more of Mr. Buchanan as a fellow-member of the Health Committee. I had expected that he would have put our NHS first. Instead he smugly tells the public that our health services do not require investment – or, to use his own dismissive description of investment in the NHS, ‘simply tossing in more and more money’. Nor does Mr. Buchanan stop there. Instead of praising the professionalism and dedication of our hard-working health professionals, he talks about the ‘failings of the NHS’.

“Mr. Buchanan says that his party ‘wants to see the maximum resources directed towards health’. If this is so, why has the DUP Finance Minister refused to fund the NHS to UK levels? If this is so, why has the DUP Chair of the Health Committee taken upon herself the role of a cheerleader for the Finance Minister?

“The Appleby Report into Northern Ireland’s health services unequivocally demonstrated the need for increased investment in our NHS. Appleby said of Northern Ireland’s health services, ‘a significant increase in resources is required in the coming years’. The Finance Minister Peter Robinson, supported by Health Committee Chair Iris Robinson, disagrees: his Draft Budget fails to provide increased investment for our health services.

“The DUP’s stance on this issue – as with so many others – has radically changed in recent times. As recently as 2005, Iris Robinson was telling the House of Commons that ‘significant investment is required’ in Northern Ireland’s health service and that the DUP ‘advocate increased funding’. Now Tom Buchanan, presumably at the behest of the Finance Minister, is dismissing investment in our NHS as ‘simply tossing in more and more money’. Obviously some DUP u-turns – such as accepting power-sharing and the devolved institutions of the Belfast Agreement – have been very welcome, if over-due. A u-turn on the importance of investing in the NHS, however, is self-evidently not in the interests of Northern Ireland.”

Sam Gardiner MLA, Ulster Unionist Assemblyman for Upper Bann, has called for a review of hospital visiting hours to reduce the spread of infections.

Speaking in the Assembly Mr Gardiner asked Health Minister Michael McGimpsey to look at this issue following meetings he has had with the Chief Executive of Craigavon Area Hospital. Mr Gardiner had previously raised the issue of MRSA related deaths in Craigavon.

Responding, Minister McGimpsey said :

“The report from the second audit of environmental-cleanliness standards will be an important next step in considering areas in which we can ensure that improvements are made. One such area is regulating visiting and the movement of the public in hospitals, which are often like public thoroughfares. A return to some of the old standards regarding visiting hours and ensuring that only those with business in the wards should be there is an important function that must be looked at, and I will certainly do so.”

Mr Gardiner commented :

“Before my intervention in the Assembly, I had already had a very helpful and constructive meeting with the Minister. We must explore ways in which real and practical solutions can be found to the win scourges of MRSA and C difficle. I will be leading a team of Assembly members to a meeting with the Chief Executive of Craigavon Area Hospital in the near future.”

“I will be giving details of our discussions to the press soon afterwards.”

Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott has stated that while the report of the former Interim Victims Commissioner Bertha McDougall should be implemented, the need for a full-time Commissioner is growing ever larger day by day.

Mr Elliott said: “The former Interim Victim Commissioners report was a welcome document that I endorsed as a start to a more extensive programme which would be headed by a full-time Commissioner. However, the appointment of a full-time Commissioner is yet to be made by the Office of the First and Deputy First Minister leaving Victims throughout Northern Ireland without a method by which to express their opinions and concerns.”

Applications for the position of Victims commissioner were welcomed earlier in the year, but after failing to find a “suitable” candidate the First and Deputy First Minsters reopened the application process. This process is currently ongoing, and Mr Elliott hopes that the First Minister and the Deputy First Minister can quickly make a decision.

The Fermanagh and South Tyrone MLA went on to say, “The time that is being taken by the First and Deputy First Ministers to appoint a Victims Commissioner is scandalous. The need for someone to represent the victims is a real issue.

While Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness sit together having a ‘cosy’ time in Stormont many people with real issues are being left to hurt out in the public. It is not good enough.

“I have recently learned that the report of Bertha McDougall is to be used to inform the evolving policy for a Victims Commissioner. What we really want is the implementation of the areas of this report that can be introduced quickly to happen. There is a vacuum in the Victims process that needs to be filled and the only ‘show in town’ is this current report. There is a real need to support victims, including the need for immediate finance to be given to the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund which has been under funded for the last number of years.”

Ulster Unionist Chairman of Regional Development Committee and North Belfast MLA today said that no green light could be given to the Regional Development Minister’s report advocating water taxes while so many fundamentally important questions remained unanswered.

Mr Cobain also re-iterated his personal opposition to taxing people for water.

In an Assembly speech during a debate on the Independent’s Water Review Panel’s Strand One Report, Mr Cobain said,

“I represent a large, working class constituency in North Belfast, where thousands of families fall within the economically challenged bracket. At the last Assembly election, like many other MLAs in the House I gave an undertaking that I would not support the introduction of a water tax in this mandate, for precisely the reasons that I have just outlined: I refuse to make ten of thousands of people poorer than they already are.

An acceptance of this tax, even with a substantial affordability tariff, will do just that.

Until we establish the most basic of facts on who would be taxed and who won’t be, what provisions are being made to ensure that the most vulnerable in our society are offered protection from falling into further debt, how any bills will be handled, who will be responsible for collection and the method of assessment whether it be based on rateable values or not, it would be madness to proceed.

At the moment we don’t even know the answers to these most basic yet fundamentally important questions. Until these questions are answered fully and comprehensively we would be doing a disservice to the people of Northern Ireland by giving any approval or giving the impression that this Report is a basis for a fair and equitable charge on water.

So it is clear that there are still huge questions to be answered and much more work to be done before those that are advocating a water tax can be given the green light to do so.”