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Mr John O'Dowd: Assembly records
All of Mr John O'Dowd’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not flagged, uncertain or not yet analysed.
The Public Office (Accountability) Bill and its principles are a positive step forward for public services. In ensuring transparency and enhancing public confidence and trust, it is important that the public sector here is held to the same high standards as its counterparts in Britain. However, I acknowledge the…
Each year, CPD publishes a report that details the procurement activity that is carried out by all nine centres of procurement. In the 2024-25 report, two CPD centres of procurement expertise awarded 330 contracts with a value of over £1·2 billion, which represents 24% of the total value of contracts awarded. In…
If the Member wishes to share with me the clear evidence that he has in that regard, I am more than happy to take a look at that and examine it in closer detail. There is transparency around CPD's work. There are accountability mechanisms in place etc. However, if the Member has evidence that he wishes to bring to my…
The fact that we have already started to spend that transformation money across a range of projects shows that the transformation board is delivering its side of the bargain. I hope to be in a position, in the near future, to bring a paper to the Executive on the second tranche of that funding after deliberations by…
As I said, each Minister and their accounting officer and senior team can and should review their workforce strategy and workforce complement and how they can deliver the services that they are required to deliver, as a Department, with their staff complement and budget. There is nothing to stop any Minister or…
On the Member's last comment: there are protocols in place that I, as Finance Minister, have to follow in relation to Audit Office reports. My reading of the Audit Office report is that there needs to be collective political leadership around the Executive table. Clearly, I have a role in that, as do other Ministers.…
I am conscious that we are going to have a debate on the subject later. I will be able to go into more detail on my response to the Audit Office report. I am also acutely conscious of the protocols with Audit Office reports. When an Audit Office report is published, it goes to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC),…
Civil Service reform must be embraced not just by me, as Finance Minister, but by every Executive Minister and senior leader across the Civil Service. If responsibility for transformation is left to just one Minister, one Department or one permanent secretary, the opportunities that it offers will not be realised. It…
It is not a case of me not listening to the Education Minister; in fact, I had a constructive meeting with the Education Minister last week. I am doing a round of bilaterals with all Ministers in preparation for, I hope, agreement of a three-year Budget. The Education Minister set out his pressures to me. Let me put…
The proposals that I have brought forward for consultation follow political engagement and have been developed against the backdrop of an exceptionally constrained financial position. They do not provide the level of funding that I would wish to see directed at our public services; instead, they reflect what is…
I do not have an assessment in front of me, but the voluntary and community sector has proven its worth time and time again; indeed, I will meet the sector again tomorrow in relation to the local growth fund and the challenges that that will bring. I think that all Members can agree that the voluntary and community…
Policies and strategies have their value, but, unless they deliver, they are just documentation. In this instance, over 7,200 people who were long-term unemployed or disadvantaged in the labour market have gained employment and over 370 social enterprises have been part of the supply chain in public-sector contracts.…
The Member will have heard me set out the comprehensive criteria that are used. As a result of the work that has been carried out, there has been success not only in my Department, with its role in procurement, but in other Departments. We are seeing success. As legislators, we will say that legislation has its uses,…
The procurement policy note (PPN) 01/21 on social value in procurement was revised in February 2025 following reviews by the Strategic Investment Board (SIB) and key stakeholders, including the voluntary, community and social enterprise sectors, Departments and centres of procurement expertise (COPEs). The reviews…
Departments are aware that they must surrender all reduced requirements immediately and certainly before the final monitoring round of the year. To avoid capital being lost to the Executive, however, Departments have been advised to inform DOF immediately of any emerging easements. If further easements arise, I will…
I presume that the Member is referring to the allocation in my statement on the draft Budget. I was responding to bids from the Department of Health in that instance, and it will be a matter for that Department to acknowledge why and for what purpose those bids were made. The objective remains to deliver the…
The Executive apply a zero-based approach to allocating capital in Budgets. That means that Departments must justify their capital requirements for each Budget period. Departmental budget allocations include earmarked funding that must be used for the purpose provided and general capital allocations over which…
For the record, businesses were first engaged with in April 2024. Representatives of the hospitality sector met the then Finance Minister in May 2024. Further letters were sent out to the hospitality sector representative bodies later that summer, alerting them to the fact that the COVID discount was to be removed and…
As I said, I conducted a safe U-turn, checking my rear-view mirror and looking across the road, paying attention to the environment around me at all times. This is how the process of fair maintainable trade (FMT) turnover operates. Fair maintainable trade turnover is the turnover that an efficient operator could…
Mr Brett, I have in front of me the Hansard report of our conversation in the Chamber last week. I am scanning through it, so you are at risk of being corrected. I see none of those terms used against you. We had a robust exchange of views, and your tone at the start was matched by my tone at the end. You are a bit…
A U-turn that is carried out in a safe manner is part of the Highway Code: the political highway code and the Roads Order. I am sure that the former police officer across the Chamber has examined it more closely. What is important is where we are at now. I listened to the concerns of elected representatives and the…
I wish to provide Members with a statement in relation to my decision to stop the publication of the new valuation list, the process known as "Reval2026". Small and medium-sized businesses across all sectors are the backbone of our economy. The sustainable growth of our local economy is crucial for all our people. As…
Again, it is very easy for Members to stand up in the Chamber and call for exclusions from rates or from this tax or the other tax. The more that you exclude, the less rates that you bring in, and the less money that you have to spend on public services and promoting the economy. Anyone who has concerns about having…
At this stage, I am not in a position to respond to the Member on whether the statistics that he quotes are correct or incorrect. When a premises does not respond to the valuation request with the information that is asked for, that leaves the valuers in the position of having to make an estimate. That estimate is…