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Mr Paul Givan: Assembly records
All of Mr Paul Givan’s imported questions, contributions and motions in this mandate, newest first, including those assessed as not flagged, uncertain or not yet analysed.
Apart from comments being completely outwith the principles of the Bill, Sinn Féin has, up until this point, done well to resist the temptation to go down the route that Mr Sheehan has now taken with his commentary. I did not go into the history of the Irish language and the way in which Sinn Féin has used and abused…
Thank you, Deputy Speaker. I acknowledge the intent behind the private Member's Bill, and I recognise the many teachers, school leaders, classroom assistants, other support staff, parents, pupils and representatives of sectoral bodies who have contributed to discussions about the future workforce needs of Irish-medium…
I will talk about this further later. Part of the issue is that Members get to speak, and then a Minister provides a lot of information that Members have not had the chance to hear. That may be a procedural issue for the Assembly to consider. The inference that Mr Sheehan has drawn is that the fact that a strategy is…
I thank the Member for giving way. I will, obviously, make my remarks later in the debate when it is my turn to respond. I appreciate that the Member rightly recognises that the Department has made progress in this area, not least as part of TransformED and through the bursary schemes. When we identified shortages in…
Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Second Stage debate on the Bill and perhaps introduce some reality and context. While Mr Baker and I have not seen eye to eye on every issue in the Chamber, I do not for one moment question his sincerity in introducing this…
I appreciate the Member's giving way. One of his colleagues did not give way, and, in this debate, it is important that we do that. I will do so when I am responding. The Member has posed a question about putting our money where our mouth is. I do not think that you can compare capital expenditure of £200,000 on a…
I appreciate the Member's giving way. He makes an important point, which is that the Assembly voted on and passed legislation on hospital car parking introduced by a Member of the same party. The Minister from Mr Burrows's party has introduced a Bill not to implement that legislation, because doing so would require…
I thank the Member for giving way. Obviously, I will make remarks later, when I respond as the Minister. There is a lot of information that will help inform Members as they try to reach a position on the debate. The Member rightly raises the question about the evidence on how the Bill's provisions will work. One of…
Thank you. Mr Speaker. I welcome the opportunity to respond to the debate and set the record straight. I will follow in the same vein as the Chairman of the Education Committee, who set the right tone in holding me and the Minister of Health to account and in seeking genuine information. I will set the record straight…
If there is any such report in existence, it should be published in full so that the public will be able to have full transparency and accountability in relation to any issues that are raised with Ministers. That is why, when the Commissioner for Standards carries out an investigation, it is then made publicly…
I refer to the same comment that I made to other Members in respect of the issues that are being raised. On no occasion has any complaint been upheld against me. Indeed, I have only ever been vindicated in the approach that I have taken in my role as Minister of Education.
Again, he is not giving specific details. If he wants to make a specific allegation that relates to a specific individual, he is welcome to do so. All Members are subject to investigations by the Assembly Commissioner for Standards. I have been investigated often. There has been only one incident, which related to…
The Member would need to elaborate on exactly what it is that he is referring to. If the Member wants to make a specific allegation about a specific issue, I will be able to respond to him. At the moment, however, he is making a vague allegation, as was Mr Baker. If he wants to provide specifics, I will give him a…
The Member is right to highlight the inaccuracy in respect of the comments that Mrs Guy made around RE. She went on to make a number of other misinformed comments, but I will respond to those later in the week. The characterisation, as the Member described it, is completely inaccurate. My Department did not push the…
That is something that we have taken forward as a result of the UK Supreme Court judgement. The review of the syllabus is now firmly under way. As Members will be aware, I have agreed the terms of reference for the review and have appointed Professor Noel Purdy as chair and Mrs Joyce Logue as vice chair. The chair and…
The EA will work closely with the school principal. It has engaged with the school to outline the works that it needs to complete to go through the process in order for the necessary business cases and so on to be completed. Then, the necessary funding needs to be made available for that. I will make the point that I…
I have visited the school in my role as Education Minister, and I am aware of the issues. I have sought assurances from the Education Authority that it is giving it the priority that it merits and that it is working through the processes so that the relevant stages are completed and works can be carried out. I say to…
I agree with the Member. As a father of three girls, I absolutely believe that women's rights ought to be upheld in workplaces and that there should not be any practices in any sector, but certainly not in the area that I am responsible for, that discriminate against women in the workplace.
Any requests that come into a school for flexible arrangements are considered by the board of governors in the first instance, and I know that, where those can be accommodated, schools often accommodate such requests.
What I can say to the Member's remarks is that if any allegations of that nature were made, I would expect them to be thoroughly investigated. I am confident that in any such investigation, no such allegation, disgraceful as it would be to have made it in the first instance, would be substantiated or upheld.
There is a financial challenge facing the entirety of the Department of Education when it comes to meeting the needs within not just youth services but special educational needs provision and the wider issues around routine maintenance. What the Department of Education needs is a significant increase in its…
I addressed that question when Mr McGrath raised the importance of the youth sector. I shared his sentiment about the importance of the youth sector, particularly having witnessed it not just in my constituency but in many others. The remarks there were quite clear, namely that there was an opportunity for the EA, if…