All of Dr Caoimhe Archibald’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not flagged, uncertain or not yet analysed.
As I have previously stated on the record, I am happy to work with the Health Minister in respect of any proposals that he brings forward. Departments have now received their opening budgets for 2024-25 and should be considering their priorities within those. If these services are not considered affordable within the…
I appreciate the important role of hospices in delivering specialist care to people with palliative and end-of-life care needs. Funding support for the Children’s Hospice is a matter for the Health Minister. I am committed to working with the Health Minister to consider any proposals from the Department of Health to…
The policy has been enhanced to expand the remit for social value in other aspects of end-to-end procurement processes, and not confine it to scoring aspects, to encourage Departments to embed social value into their organisational objectives by developing a targeted social value strategy; to include additional…
In the previous mandate, my predecessor, Conor Murphy, brought forward a number of procurement policy notes that the Executive agreed, including one on social value. That existing policy on social value is already delivering. For example, 3,500 long-term unemployed people have gained employment; 90-plus social…
I do not have the figures from the business case in front of me. I will be happy to write to the Member on that point. Obviously, it is for any Department to bid for any project that it sees fit as part of the monitoring round process.
I understand that TEO has developed a business case and sought approval for the expenditure that is required to establish and sponsor the bodies. It was approved by my Department on 10 May. I also understand that TEO is recruiting and appointing core staff along with members of an office of identity and cultural…
As part of Budget 2024-25, TEO submitted a capital bid of £54,000 for leasehold property for the language bodies that are being established under the Identity and Language Act. The Department did not submit any resource bids related to the bodies, although it indicated, as part of its return, that it would bid during…
Officials are still working through the preliminary plans for how the scheme will, or could, work. Costs cannot be finalised until the General Register Office has engaged with Department of Health officials in more detail in order to agree what our delivery plans will be. Obviously, we will look at cost implications…
I am keen to build on the progress that has been made on registering life events in Irish. Officials are working on the preliminary plans for how the scheme could work, and, as I said to Mr Robinson, all options are being considered, including how we could produce baby loss certificates in Irish.
All those things are being considered and worked through as officials scope out the development of a scheme here. I am open to looking at how we might take forward any of those things. Certainly, we will look at how we develop the scheme to ensure that it best meets the needs of people here, and there may need to be a…
I am keen to see the scheme taken forward as quickly as possible to give bereaved families the opportunity to have formal recognition of their loss. Initial discussions have taken place between the Department of Health and the General Register Office (GRO) about how the baby loss certificate scheme work may be…
As the Member will be aware, the public sector transformation board was included in the financial package and is specific to the allocation of the £235 million that has been earmarked for transformation, on the basis of £47 million over each of the next five years. The Executive have agreed to it. My approach to the…
The analysis from the Fiscal Council is based on including the financial package in the calculation, and its calculation put it at around 125% or 126%. Obviously, we argued to the Treasury that it was the financial package and our baseline still sits well below that at in and around 120% or 121%. Therefore, we…
Following the agreement of the interim fiscal framework on 22 May — luckily, we got it over the line just before the general election was called — the needs-based factor of 24% will apply from 2024-25 to new Barnett consequentials arising since the Executive were restored in February 2024. It will apply when the…
We have established the team, and we have nominated officials to form it. As the Member will be aware, a certain degree of expertise is required to take forward that work, and it is important that officials with that expertise are part of the team. It is really important for us, as a Department and an Executive, that…
I was pleased to sign an interim fiscal framework on behalf of the Executive last month. That is a significant early milestone towards putting our finances on a more sustainable footing. Following intensive and constructive negotiations, I secured a significant commitment from Treasury that it will review how the…
When the scheme was in place up until 2022, there was positive feedback. I do not have the figures in front of me, but the analysis showed that those who partook of the scheme were mostly small independent retailers and that the scheme had a beneficial impact on the high street. I would be happy to write to the Member…
As the Member 's question reflected, the consultation closed in February. We received some 1,400 responses. Those have now been analysed, and officials have shared a draft report with me. That will go to the Finance Committee soon for discussion with officials. I want to give proper consideration to what people have…
The Member will be aware that some responsibilities relating to those issues fall to other Departments as well as mine. In the previous mandate, some work was done on the high street task force, which reported in 2022. The high street task force's recommendation for my Department was to reinstate the back in business…
I was pleased to secure Assembly support on 14 May for the restoration of the back in business scheme. The scheme opened for applications on 15 May. Once a business has supplied all the required evidence, the application will be processed within 10 working days. The scheme should have a significant impact on securing…
I propose bringing forward reforms that will place belief marriages formally on an equal footing to religious marriages, replacing the temporary arrangements that are currently in place. In addition, I propose increasing the minimum age of marriage and civil partnership from the current 16 to 18. That will bring this…
As the Member might be aware, the Executive's legislative programme that has been published is for this calendar year only, up until December 2024. The policy preparation for this legislation is quite far advanced, and I intend to bring it to the Executive soon.
I intend to bring forward marriage law reforms that will create more choice and flexibility for couples seeking to marry, provide equality between those with religious and non-religious beliefs and bring this jurisdiction into line with international best practice on marriage age. I believe that that is all to be…