Labour caused a week of chaos by pausing and unpausing Northern Ireland’s four city deals but at least it has brought the deals to wider attention.
Each city deal is a unique set of investment plans agreed between government, Stormont, councils and other public and private partners. With so much complexity and so many politicians seeking credit, there has always been a danger of deals leaving the press and the public cold. A little tension with London has helped everyone else tell a clearer story.
One point that could still be clearer is that city deals are a bargain. Funders are motivated to talk up their contributions and the total investment planned – £1 billion in Belfast’s case.
However, that is across 15 years and six council areas, from Antrim to Newry. Stormont is providing £350 million, equivalent to £23 million a year – small change even in its present impecunious state.
If city deals are a success, they should become a model for better government across Northern Ireland. Lord knows we could do with it.
If city deals are a success, they should become a model for better government across Northern Ireland. Lord knows we could do with it
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The DUP pulled a last-minute surprise when the executive was restored in February, choosing the Department of Education instead of the Department of Finance as had been expected. It then picked up the Department for Communities, responsible for sport, on its next turn.
Such is the sensitivity around Casement Park that some nationalists immediately asked if the DUP was aiming to sabotage it. This suspicion has resurfaced with the withdrawal of government funding last week.
The DUP has never explained its last-minute change, but it makes no sense as a plot against Casement. The party did not pick communities first, could not be sure Sinn Féin would not pick it second, and in any case Casement’s funding was to be decided over the executive’s head.
The likeliest explanation is that the DUP took cold feet over implementing difficult budgets at finance. Education was a relatively painless alternative. If suspicion is warranted, it is that the party spied a chance for some culture war grandstanding over the school curriculum.
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Doubts have been cast on the government’s £400 million estimate for building Casement Park in time for the Euros, up from £300 million last year. Secretary of state Hilary Benn said it came from “independent experts”.
Ulster GAA said it does not “recognise” the figure and Emma Little-Pengelly said it “seems extraordinary”.
Nevertheless, it is credible. As a construction deadline approaches, builders and suppliers charge a swiftly rising premium to jump the queue and get to the front of their order books. Appropriately for a concert venue, Casement has been priced like the last remaining Oasis ticket.
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In April, Sinn Féin infrastructure minister John O’Dowd told a sceptical assembly that a charge on developers could provide all the extra money NI Water desperately needs.
This started a debate that has grown ever since, yet little more was heard from the minister or his party, raising concern Sinn Féin was simply trying to change the subject from domestic water bills.
In the assembly this week, O’Dowd confirmed he is working with NI Water on legislation for an effective developer contribution.
Water charging has been considered a politically impossible dilemma in Northern Ireland. Has a solution finally been found?
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Universities in England have called for the £9,250 tuition fee to be raised to around £13,000 to allow for a decade of inflation. This call, made through Universities UK, joins increasingly desperate pleas from the sector as institutions face bankruptcy.
Fees are £4,750 in Northern Ireland because Stormont subsidises the difference between here and England. If fees there rise so does the cost of subsidy, almost doubling to up to £165 million if the £13,000 increase in England were granted.
To keep its subsidy under control, Stormont caps undergraduate places, preventing Northern Ireland’s universities from growing. Ministers would be tempted to lower the cap as costs rose. Either way, it can only become more apparent that this damaging middle-class giveaway has to go.
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Children’s commissioner Chris Quinn has called for the age of criminal responsibility in Northern Ireland to be raised from 10 to 16. Alliance justice minister Naomi Long is known to be sympathetic.
This is a debate that benefits from some basic statistics, often little known on either side.
About 800 children aged 10 to 15 are referred through the criminal justice system every year, half for offences of violence, the rest for offences against property. It is extremely rare for any to be imprisoned: on any given day there are 11 children aged 10 to 18 in custody, all at the Woodlands juvenile justice centre in Bangor. Nearly all have been remanded for a few days, a practice that could certainly be questioned. Incredibly, on any given day, just one inmate at Woodlands is serving a custodial sentence.
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Addressing last year’s Alliance conference, leader Naomi Long said the party had received legal advice that community designation at Stormont is potentially unlawful because it discriminates against ‘other’ voters and representatives. She warned a case might be brought to demand reform.
Alliance did not follow this through but campaigner Raymond McCord sought a judicial review on similar grounds, with Long offering a letter of support.
Belfast High Court has rejected the application, partly because McCord is not running for election and so lacks ‘standing’ to bring a case, but also on the substance of his arguments. The judge ruled designation is within the flexibility allowed by human rights law and a worthwhile compromise for the peace process.
These points are debatable enough to make an interesting appeal, but one consequence of the ruling is that another case might have to wait until the next assembly election.
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DUP MLA Paul Frew has been a lonely voice warning that the new Public Health Bill will introduce “draconian” powers during pandemics and other health emergencies.
The former economy minister is sometimes dismissed as eccentric but his concerns are hardly unreasonable. Although the bill has been in the works for a decade, much of it looks like a rushed response to Covid and the frustration the authorities had with imposing lockdowns. It will give health officials sweeping powers over individuals, including mandatory vaccination and isolation, plus effectively limitless powers to seize property and enter premises.
One of the most unnerving aspects of the Bill is the almost complete lack of interest in it, beyond the libertarian fringes of the DUP. Would more people take notice if it was called the Special Powers Act?