Willie Clarke (Sinn Féin)

6. asked the First Minister and deputy First Minister, given the joint nature of their office, to explain how the joint procedures within their office work in practice.    (AQO 236/10)

Peter Robinson (DUP)

The Departments (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 established the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister, which is jointly in the charge of the First Minister and the deputy First Minister. Statutory and other prerogative and executive powers of the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister are exercised by the First Minister and deputy First Minister acting jointly. In practice, that means that agreement must be reached on matters that require formal ministerial approval.

Willie Clarke (Sinn Féin)

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. Does the First Minister recognise that public confidence in the institutions builds when all aspects of the Pledge of Office are observed?

Peter Robinson (DUP)

That is one factor that helps to bring about public confidence, but it is not the only one. People want the Assembly to deliver, and that requires the Assembly and the Executive to make expeditious and sensible decisions. That is what builds public confidence. Those decisions must be made in the context of the ministerial code and the Pledge of Office.

Dominic Bradley (Social Democratic and Labour Party)

Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. Does the First Minister agree that greater integration and cohesion in OFMDFM would send out a much more positive message to the general public and help to realise the full potential of devolution?

Peter Robinson (DUP)

In listening to the Member, the Assembly will recognise that he draws from his experience of the most divided OFMDFM, in which his party and the Ulster Unionist Party held the main positions. At times the atmosphere was so bad that they could not even talk to each other. They produced approximately half the number of decisions that the current OFMDFM has made in a shorter period. I recognise that the Member draws his experience from an Executive that collapsed on four occasions.

Peter Robinson (DUP)

Let us be clear that certain statutory powers must be exercised jointly, as recognised in the legislation. Effectively, that means that meetings of the Executive have to be jointly chaired, the agendas of those meetings have to be jointly agreed and decisions have to be jointly taken. Outside of that, there is not a statutory requirement. However, in the interests of good practice, there is agreement about how we proceed on most occasions.

We must recognise that the Executive brings together four parties into a mandatory coalition, but it is a not a coalition of those who chose to be together. Therefore, there will be ideological and other differences in our approaches. However, given the differences in the history and backgrounds from which we have come, there have been remarkable levels of agreement. The fact that we were able to agree a Programme for Government, a Budget and an investment strategy in a very short time is to the credit of all those who took part in those negotiations.

Rather than drawing attention to the few areas of disagreement, we should draw attention to the hundreds of areas on which we have been able to agree and move forward, but, of course, that is not a trendy thing for newspapers to emphasise.