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.
With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will answer questions 5 and 11 together. The second call for transformation proposals was issued to Departments on 23 June. Twenty-five proposals were submitted by Departments to the Executive Office. Those proposals are being assessed by the Executive Office's reform and…
As someone who edges closer to retirement every year, I can say that there is life in the old dog yet, so I do not think that we should dismiss the older generation just yet. All recruitment competitions have to take place on merit and are open to all age ranges. When people apply, the job goes to the best person for…
As I said to Mr Kingston, it is advantageous for us, as a significant employer, to be able to say to potential employees — it is also advantageous in retaining employees — that we offer hybrid working where suitable and with the agreement of line managers etc. Each case must be agreed individually. We remain a…
A policy is in place. It is down to Departments and line managers to manage that policy in working with their staff. The hybrid working policy has advantages for our service, offering flexibility of working location. We remain in a competitive market for the recruitment and retention of staff. The fact that we offer…
Each Department in the Civil Service is responsible for managing that information locally. My Department, however, has recently completed a review of the Civil Service hybrid working policy. Part of the policy review included the development of a new online system for hybrid working applications to enable management…
Those matters are for the Health Minister and the Belfast Trust. My task as Finance Minister is to present a Budget to the Executive and the Assembly. Once that is agreed, how their budget is used is down to individual Ministers.
That question was part of the consultation. Without pre-empting the outcome of the consultation, I see the charging element being used not for parents who are collecting a baby loss certificate but in future circumstances in which someone may ask for multiple copies. When legislating, you have to make provision for…
That is an important point. It is clearly a sensitive and emotive issue, particularly for parents who have lost a baby and have stepped forward to contribute to the consultation, so it is important that we listen carefully to their views. They know best how the scheme can support families. I am grateful for the many…
The public consultation on the baby loss certificate scheme commenced on 17 June and runs until 12 September. To date, over 940 responses have been received from individuals and organisations. I am extremely grateful to all who have taken the time to engage. Every response received will help us form a scheme that…
It will cover a number of areas including further consideration of Professor Holtham's review of our level of need, Housing Executive borrowing powers and additional fiscal devolution. In my opinion, it is vital that it provides the Executive with the financial tools that we need to deliver more sustainable public…
Engagement with the Treasury is already under way in relation to greater fiscal powers for this place. Obviously, it will have to be a final decision for the Executive on which, if any, of those powers are transferred. However, those discussions are already in train. They started and continued from our discussions…
Not directly with the Chancellor on that occasion. However, the Member will be aware that, as part of the 2025-26 Budget, the Executive allocated £50 million towards early years and childcare strategy that supports hard-working families by delivering more affordable childcare. The number of children eligible for…
The Member will be aware that the deputy First Minister and I met the Chancellor on the date in question. The issue of farm inheritance tax was raised with the Chancellor. I was not encouraged by the Chancellor's response, and I made it clear to her on a number of occasions throughout the meeting that decisions made…
I recently had the opportunity to meet the Welsh and Scottish Finance Ministers. At that stage, I believe that we were not aware of the date of the Budget, although we knew that it would be delayed. They have slightly different legal processes to go through. The situation is not ideal for our budgetary processes, but…
With your permission, Mr Speaker, I intend to answer questions 1, 8 and 13 together. The meeting with the Chancellor was useful and allowed me to update her directly on the issues facing the people whom we all represent. I emphasised the need for the upcoming Budget to support growth and continued investment in and…
Thank you, and I thank colleagues for their comments, views and questions on the Bill that is before us today. I will try to cover as many of those as possible in my closing remarks. It is quite a wide-ranging Bill in the sense that it covers a lot of Departments and issues. It basically tidies up several matters that…
I beg to move I welcome the opportunity to move the Second Stage of the Bill. As Members will be aware, financial provisions Bills are required at regular intervals to deal with miscellaneous and routine financial matters that require amendments to governing legislation. It is on that basis that I present the Bill…
I thank the Members who contributed to the Bill's Second Stage debate. I will try to cover as many of the points that were made by Members as possible. The Chair of the Committee said that he was going to be constructive. He was, for most of his contribution. The general view of Members — not ignoring the views of Mr…
If the Member reads further down clause 5, he will see at the very end, under subsection (5), that: "Regulations under this section may not be made unless a draft of the regulations has been laid before, and approved by a resolution of, the Assembly."
I beg to move Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-LeasCheann Comhairle. I welcome the opportunity to move the Second Stage of the Fiscal Council Bill and open the debate on this important legislation. Members will be aware that the Executive agreed to the formation of the Fiscal Council in March 2021, when it was…
I have noted the many issues raised by Members, and I will endeavour to respond to as many as possible in my closing comments on the debate. I absolutely accept that not laying a legislative consent motion for the Data (Use and Access) Bill is not a situation in which we should have found ourselves. The Bill was a…
I beg to move Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle. I welcome the opportunity to introduce the motion. At the outset, I must address the procedural context of our current situation. As you are aware, the Sewel convention stipulates that the Westminster Parliament should not legislate in devolved areas…
Yes. Since the establishment of the public-sector transformation board, significant progress has been made. In March this year, I announced in the Assembly the first tranche of successful projects, allocating over £129 million in funding across projects in healthcare, special educational needs, justice and…