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Will the Minister commit to looking at the specific issues of the Bill, including the articles that give rise to divergence? I know that it is not within your remit to make changes, but, in the ongoing negotiations between the UK Government, through DEFRA, and the EU, those would be improvements and an upgrade. The…
Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. I will be brief in my summary. I am very grateful for the contributions that were made in the Chamber and for the scrutiny that the Committee provided in advance of the debate. The Chairperson of the Committee asked what further steps I will take to address divergence. I am in regular…
I will speak briefly as a member of the AERA Committee and Alliance spokesperson on agriculture, environment and rural affairs to express support for the extension of the Animal Welfare (Import of Cats, Dogs and Ferrets) Bill to Northern Ireland. The UK-wide approach to prevent the commercial import of mutilated or…
Mr Speaker, you will be glad to know that I do not intend to rehearse everything that has been said. The Chair of the Committee has outlined the merits and the issues with the LCM. As a party, the DUP believes that Northern Ireland should have exceptional standards of animal welfare. We are a nation of animal lovers,…
I support the LCM on animal welfare. As the Committee Chair mentioned, we would have liked additional time to scrutinise the Bill in its totality. However, the Department has confirmed that any secondary legislation that is introduced with the enabling powers conferred by the Bill will go out for public consultation…
I thank the Minister for tabling the LCM. We are being asked, as we were asked at Committee, to agree in principle to the commitments that the Minister has just outlined on the welfare of dogs, cats and ferrets. The legislation that we are dealing with — in principle, at this stage — will hopefully deal with many of…
I beg to move I am grateful for the opportunity to speak about the Animal Welfare (Import of Dogs, Cats and Ferrets) Bill, which is progressing through Parliament. Before I do so, I acknowledge that the Assembly's Standing Orders state that: "A legislative consent motion shall not normally be moved until at least— (a)…
I appreciate that. The Minister talked about becoming a pensioner and maybe not needing a free bus pass. That is fair enough, but I remind him that Age NI has said that around 40% of pensioners are in poverty. I implore the Minister and others Ministers not to place barriers in the way of people, especially when we…
Previously, Departments seemed to use the black box as a default mechanism. At one stage, over £1·3 billion sat in the black box, which went against the Department's own accounting rules. When you are addressing the Bill, will it be possible to make some statutory requirement that we not exceed the good governance…
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 thank the Member for giving way. Does he agree that that is a reserved matter? It comes under the remit of the Home Office, not, unfortunately, that of TEO. It would be much more preferable if we were able to deal with those matters ourselves. Unfortunately, that is not the case at the moment.
A few aspects of the Bill are concerning and need to be scrutinised a bit further. Obviously, the Finance Committee will do that, but it is worth teasing out some of the aspects this afternoon. The Bill is being presented as dealing with routine financial matters, but some of the provisions are anything but routine…
I feel like Matthew O'Toole, being on my feet constantly. I will be a more positive Matthew than the version that you are used to, Minister. The SDLP complained earlier about the number of Bills that have come through. The length of time that we have been back and the fact that the Bill is coming through only now…
Sure. We recognise that there is a need for the Bill, not least to rectify a number of anomalies relating to the absence and location of certain powers that are vital to Departments' decision-making and the delivery of support for public services. There are some 16 provisions in the Bill, with three that relate to the…
I thank the Minister for coming to the House for the Second Stage of the Bill. In 20 clauses, the Bill makes amendments that will help to address several issues across various Departments, as the Minister laid out. There is more detail in the explanatory and financial memorandum (EFM). The oversight of the investment…
It was the case, but the amount has come down. This will help to tidy that up. From that perspective, it is useful. This is a big Bill. There are lots of important things in it, and it will be important to each Committee, where their bodies are being granted powers. The Finance Committee is looking at three specific…
The Member has made a fair point. He has put his remarks on the record. I am not quite sure that there are billions of pounds of spending through the black box, now. I do not think that —.