Results 1-20 of 1,989 for (in the 'Commons debates' OR in the 'Westminster Hall debates' OR in the 'Lords debates' OR in the 'Northern Ireland Assembly debates') speaker:Mark Durkan

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Northern Ireland Block Grant (17 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: Like Declan O’Loan, I support the motion. I accept that it is probably the lowest common denominator on the issue, as some of the Ulster Unionist members said, but it is an important common denominator if we are to declare our opposition to any reduction in the Northern Ireland block grant during the next CSR period, or whatever it might be called. The SDLP has a problem with the Ulster...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Northern Ireland Block Grant (17 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: First, I happily acknowledge that the SDLP has advocated a budgetary review Committee and still does, as Mr O’Loan indicated earlier. We had tabled an amendment to that effect, but we proposed a budgetary review Committee to deal with the serious pressures on budgets, public expenditure and public services. The Assembly should not wait until the next comprehensive spending review to...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Northern Ireland Block Grant (17 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: We want to play our part in making responsible choices and in carving out clear strategic priorities in as positive a way as possible. To that end, we support the motion and oppose the amendment.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Northern Ireland Block Grant (17 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: We will come back with our own proposals.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: I thank the deputy First Minister for giving way. May I remind him of a conversation that took place in the office of the deputy First Minister early in my tenure, which was similar to one that I had with Gerry Adams, the Sinn Féin president? During that conversation I indicated that among the options that I was pursuing in discussions with the First Minister was the possibility of...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: In the event of the Assembly not agreeing Budget legislation, the Department of Finance and Personnel has a reserve power that it can use. I had cause to research that matter on a particular occasion. Therefore, it would not be a case of everything grinding to a halt, which is markedly different from the dissolution provided for in the sunset clause. We do not want to see that come about, but...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: Perhaps Dr Farry could enlighten us. He referred to the provision in the Westminster legislation as being a fail-safe mechanism and that at least we could rely on it being there. Three parties support the Bill: one party told us that there is no fail-safe or fallback mechanism whatsoever; another party told us that there is, arguably, a fallback mechansim but that it does not believe that...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: The SDLP raised issues, some of which involved criticisms. None of the issues involved obstacles, barriers or preconditions. Other parties, including the Alliance Party, create preconditions that stand in the way of the earlier devolution of policing and justice.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: I have a direct correction to make. The SDLP never made that proposal during negotiations.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: The SDLP made that proposal during a prolonged period of suspension that had no end in sight and when no talks were in prospect. It was not made during any talks or any negotiations. Again, Sinn Féin has completely misrepresented the facts.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: The Member has castigated my party for its target date of 7 December 2009. He says that it is unrealistic. Does that, therefore, mean that Sinn Féin no longer takes the position that the transfer can be achieved before Christmas? That is its public and private position. It has said that it must be done before Christmas. Gerry Adams said that clearly and categorically. Have I got that...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: We are speaking to clause 2 stand part as well as to the amendments, Mr Deputy Speaker, and that is why some of those issues are relevant. Members have been questioning whether d’Hondt is a viable option and asking what running d’Hondt as specified in the Good Friday Agreement would mean. It is pertinent to address those issues, particularly given that the SDLP position was...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: Mr Ford might tell me to get my timetable right, but we know the timetable of the e-mail to the Liberal Democrats in which he might not have said that it was time to be nice to Shaun Woodward, but he did say that Mr Woodward was trying to do the right thing in the current situation and that, perhaps, people should go easy on him. We do not work like that. I used to think that the Alliance...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: The Alliance Party is being consistent on the issue of a voluntary coalition and corrupted on various other issues, including the shared future and the whole notion of principled opposition. I recall the leader of the Alliance Party telling us that they were in opposition as a matter of principle. In one interview he said that even if they were entitled to a post, they would not take it...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: I am not the first Member to refer to the sunset clause, which is also part of the twin legislation in Westminster that, similarly, provides for a departure from d’Hondt. In the Second Stage debate and today, Sinn Féin strongly relied on and invoked the sunset clause, and it talked about there being no fallback position. (Mr Deputy Speaker [Mr Dallat] in the Chair) The sunset...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: I want to make the point to Mr Maskey that the creation of an extra Department to bring the number of Departments to more than 10 needs the agreement of the Assembly on a cross-community vote. That is the point on which Martina Anderson misquotes section 17(4) of the Northern Ireland Act 1998. She said that section 17(4) means that if there is going to be an extra Department, the Minister...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: That is what we are in the business of doing here by way of this legislation. It is what we are trying to do in the Assembly and Executive Review Committee. However, those are not genuine all-party negotiations for two reasons: there are questions as to how well all parties are represented in those discussions, and also because those discussions are confined —

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: Allow me to clarify: I said that one could not call the Assembly and Executive Review Committee an all-party negotiation because, first, there is a question as to how well-represented all the parties are. Is the Member saying that all parties are on that Committee? They are not. That is a limitation of the Assembly and Executive Review Committee. [Interruption.] Secondly, that Committee finds...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: I want to address some points that Members made in opposing the amendments proposed by Alex Attwood. Members have questioned our position and suggested that we said that the Minister of justice post is ours and ours alone and that no other party should get it. During the Second Stage debate on the Bill and in the meetings that the SDLP held with the First Minister and the deputy First...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Consideration Stage (10 Nov 2009)

Mark Durkan: I appreciate that intervention and I will reply to it. The Member said that it would not be politically feasible to absorb the justice Ministry into the existing 10 Departments. Why not? It was politically feasible for the First Minister, when he came back from Florida, to say that he was going to kill dead things and reduce the number of Departments. If that is politically feasible, why is...