Results 1-20 of 208 for speaker:Alex Easton

Northern Ireland Assembly: Ministerial Statement: British-Irish Council Summit Meeting (17 Nov 2009)

Alex Easton: As the junior Minister is aware, Members of the Assembly attend the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly (BIPA). Did the recent summit meeting consider the possibility of more structured relationships between BIC and BIPA?

Northern Ireland Assembly: Committee Business: Obesity (16 Nov 2009)

Alex Easton: I dare say that if I announced an initiative in the House today that would put £500 million into the Northern Ireland economy every year in these difficult economic times, it would be a stop-press moment. Headlines would be written on the subject, and it would be a cause of significant celebration. However, is it not the case that the Department’s Investing for Health strategy...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Committee Business: Efficiency and Contingency Deficit Proposals in the Health and Social Care Trusts (9 Nov 2009)

Alex Easton: As much as I care about health, I hate debating health issues in the Chamber. Regardless of the subject, the Ulster Unionist Party and the Health Minister are always more interested in blaming everyone but themselves for the state of the Health Service than debating the relevant issues. Let us look at the facts. By 2010-11, the health budget will be about £4 billion. When devolution...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Committee Business: Efficiency and Contingency Deficit Proposals in the Health and Social Care Trusts (9 Nov 2009)

Alex Easton: When the Health Minister comes to the Committee, we are attacked. When the Health Minister is on TV, we are attacked. When we make helpful suggestions to the Health Minister, we are attacked. The Health Minister is obsessed with attacking the DUP, and it is to the detriment of our Health Service. When the Ambulance Service Trust came to the Committee to discuss efficiency savings and a...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Committee Business: Efficiency and Contingency Deficit Proposals in the Health and Social Care Trusts (9 Nov 2009)

Alex Easton: I, like the Member, am not getting answers. Does he agree that not getting replies to questions for written answer is a deliberate attempt to prevent us from knowing what is going on in the Health Service?

Northern Ireland Assembly: Committee Business: Efficiency and Contingency Deficit Proposals in the Health and Social Care Trusts (9 Nov 2009)

Alex Easton: Recently, we discovered that management costs have increased by 13% since RPA. The number of managers has been reduced, but will the Member explain why there has been such a huge increase in management costs, accounting for £13 million? We are meant to be doing away with waste. Could that money not be better used for front line services?

Northern Ireland Assembly: Committee Business: Efficiency and Contingency Deficit Proposals in the Health and Social Care Trusts (9 Nov 2009)

Alex Easton: Will the Member give way?

Northern Ireland Assembly: Committee Business: Town Centre Regeneration (2 Nov 2009)

Alex Easton: I broadly welcome the recommendations of the inquiry into town centre regeneration. If the report is effectively actioned, it has the potential to make real, positive change to town centres. In the time allocated, it is impossible to do justice to the report, which deserves to be compre­hensively analysed. I will, therefore, highlight the critical matters of importance to today’s...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Lisbon Treaty Referendum (20 Oct 2009)

Alex Easton: Does the Member not agree that the DUP put down a motion a year ago that called for a referendum? Therefore, the DUP has been ahead of the game on the issue. My party has been pushing for a referendum — not the Ulster Unionist Party.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Lisbon Treaty Referendum (20 Oct 2009)

Alex Easton: Does the Member agree that the Lisbon Treaty would create a president, a motto, a flag, an anthem and all the trappings of constitutional power? It seems that the Ulster Unionists are backtracking and are supporting the creation of a European superstate.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Health, Social Services And Public Safety: Ambulance Service: Western Health and Social Care Trust (12 Oct 2009)

Alex Easton: Will the Minister explain why, at last Thursday’s Health Committee meeting, when a set of cuts was presented by the Ambulance Service, we were told about a second set of proposals that the Health Committee had not seen nor heard about from the trusts, the Department or the Minister? Will the Minister give an assurance that, in future, any proposals will come to the Health Committee so...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Assisted Suicide (12 Oct 2009)

Alex Easton: I support the motion on a most vital matter, namely, the sanctity of human life. It is, I would contend, a matter of principle to seek to support, to nurture and, most importantly, to protect human life. Can any of us envisage where it would end, were we to devalue the principle of the sanctity of human life? Is it a folly to suggest that we could end up in a situation in which, as a society,...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Assisted Suicide (12 Oct 2009)

Alex Easton: I thank the Member for his intervention, and I take his comments on board. I argue for a better way, where the psychology is changed from suffering from a life-limiting condition to living with a life-living condition, where there is effective palliative care and the sanctity of human life is upheld, promoted, and, most important of all, protected. In supporting the motion there is no better...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Protestant Students (6 Oct 2009)

Alex Easton: I apologise to the House, but I was in the middle of a radio interview that went on longer than I had anticipated.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Social Tariff System (29 Sep 2009)

Alex Easton: I support the amendment, as it is the best means of addressing fuel poverty. First things first: as any good auditor acknowledges, we need to know the extent of the problem if we are to tackle it effectively. In this case, an accurate appraisal of what is required is the order of the day. I encourage the Minister to be proactive in response and to use the expertise and knowledge base of her...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Enterprise, Trade And Investment: Renewable Energy: Targets (29 Sep 2009)

Alex Easton: 7. asked the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment what assistance is available to help businesses meet the renewable energy targets set out in the draft strategic energy framework.        (AQO 126/10)

Northern Ireland Assembly: Enterprise, Trade And Investment: Renewable Energy: Targets (29 Sep 2009)

Alex Easton: What is Invest Northern Ireland doing directly to help local businesses that are interested in the development of sustainable energy?

Northern Ireland Assembly: Ministerial Statement: Swine Flu (15 Sep 2009)

Alex Easton: I praise the Minister’s Department for the good work that it continues to carry out. Will the Minister commit to being the first man in Northern Ireland to receive the vaccine? That would show goodwill to the people here and would demonstrate that the vaccine is safe. Furthermore, the Committee for Health, Social Services and Public Safety was told last week that around 9,000 people...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Compensation from the Libyan Government (14 Sep 2009)

Alex Easton: I thank my colleague for her intervention, and I totally agree with her comments. There is a lot of hypocrisy coming from the Benches across the way: on the one hand, they go on about their human rights, but on the other hand, they were the ones who were involved in abusing human rights in the first place. This is not the time to listen to the arguments of the republican movement, however...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: Compensation from the Libyan Government (14 Sep 2009)

Alex Easton: The motion addresses one of the vilest human rights-abusing organisations that the world has ever known: the criminal terrorists of the Provisional IRA. The IRA stands judged at the bar of world opinion as a cowardly and ruthless terrorist organisation that perpetrated its evil on an innocent population. From the torture and mutilation of the innocent to the abduction and premeditated murder...