Results 1-20 of 539 for speaker:Simon Hamilton

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

Simon Hamilton: I thank everyone for their contributions to the debate, which has been valuable. The motion tabled by Mr Campbell and me is a simple and straightforward attempt to seek the Assembly’s support in stating our opposition to any cuts in the block grant in the next CSR or whatever it is called at that time. The reasons why one would oppose a cut in the block grant are so obvious that it...

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

Simon Hamilton: Comrade McGimpsey.

Northern Ireland Assembly: Private Members’ Business: EU Fisheries Council (16 Nov 2009)

Simon Hamilton: My mother’s side of the family grew up in Ardglass, which, as everyone knows, is a fishing port. I am sure that Members would struggle to find many DUP families in Ardglass — they are like hen’s teeth. It is a trawl that may not produce too much, but we always try our best. I can remember visiting regularly a thriving fishing industry at that port. I remember sitting at my...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Efficiency Savings and Cuts (16 Nov 2009)

Simon Hamilton: 6. asked the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety to outline the difference between services which are reduced to meet efficiency savings and services which are cut.    (AQO 367/10)

Northern Ireland Assembly: Health, Social Services and Public Safety: Efficiency Savings and Cuts (16 Nov 2009)

Simon Hamilton: Does the Minister appreciate that there is much concern in the community that, when trusts are asked to make the efficiencies that they are required to, and to which the Minister agreed in the Budget, the proposals that emerge are, invariably, cuts, and not the sort of efficiencies that we expect? Will the Minister explain to the trusts the difference between efficiencies and cuts to ensure...

Northern Ireland Assembly: Executive Committee Business: Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 (16 Nov 2009)

Simon Hamilton: I thank the Minister for her run-through of the effect of the legislation. After such a simple and straightforward explanation, surely no one can be heard saying that that the world of child maintenance is a difficult and not easily understood subject. The Committee for Social Development considered the Child Support (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2009 at its...

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

Simon Hamilton: The Member says that that will occur by 21 December 2009. Having listened to previous contributions from Members on the SDLP Benches, will he accept that that will actually occur within two weeks of Royal Assent being granted to the Department of Justice Bill; not within two weeks of devolution day? Potentially, therefore, it would be earlier than 21 December.

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

Simon Hamilton: The Member said that this is a back room deal that he and his party were completely unaware of. Was the Member not sitting three seats down from me throughout the Assembly and Executive Review Committee’s deliberations on this issue and the proposals?

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

Simon Hamilton: As the First Minister pointed out, the Member also sat through the Second Stage debate in the Chamber. Therefore, for him to say that he and his party are unaware of what has been proposed is a complete and utter fallacy.

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

Simon Hamilton: Yes. I was trying to conclude, but I will give way.

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

Simon Hamilton: Mr Deputy Speaker, perhaps you can correct me if I am wrong, but I am under the appre­hension that I am an actual legislator. The Member may not like how I vote on particular pieces of legislation, but a legislator I am, as is he.

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

Simon Hamilton: I will leave that comment. With regard to Mr Attwood’s first point, I believe that his party supports law and order. If he cares to check the Hansard report tomorrow, he will see that I said that I did not believe that his tabling of the amendments was motivated by a genuine concern about what happens with law and order in Northern Ireland post May 2012. It is not about his...

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

Simon Hamilton: The d’Hondt system may well have been the mechanism used at the start. However, I would have thought that the Member would agree with my point about the sensitivity of the office of a Minister of justice — indeed, a first Minister of justice — and that he would agree with the position outlined in clause 2 that cross-community support is essential. The Member may be...

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

Simon Hamilton: The Member has made a very valid point. In other democracies not too far from here, where coalition Governments are the norm, parties very much smaller than the Alliance Party regularly form part of the Government and regularly punch well above their weight. I say to Mr Kennedy that this is not a point about one particular party; it is about having a system in place that commands community...

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

Simon Hamilton: That is absolutely correct. Perhaps it would be better for the SDLP to wait until its leadership contest is decided before it nominates someone as Minister of justice. The issues that will be dealt with by a future Minister of justice are so sensitive that a higher threshold for the post is required. Therefore, to subject the post to the vagaries of the d’Hondt process, as the UUP would...

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

Simon Hamilton: I have been trying to move on to my second set of points for some time, but I will give way to the Member.

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

Simon Hamilton: I have allowed the Member to get his intra-nationalist warfare sound bite in, but I cannot see how, if he examines clause 2, he can conclude that its intention is to exclude anyone. Instead, it embodies inclusiveness and the need to have cross-community support for whoever is nominated. The point that the First Minister made was that whoever is selected will ultimately have the support of the...

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

Simon Hamilton: The legislation clearly places an imperative on us all, including the Member’s party, to get engaged in developing a long-term resolution to that issue. That, in one respect, is a fallback, and I do not believe that there will be some awful set of circumstances, or that Northern Ireland would be allowed to continue without having any policing and justice powers resting anywhere. It is...

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

Simon Hamilton: I am sure that there were some Members in the House to hear that Mrs Long was coming to a conclusion, Mr Deputy Speaker. Perhaps that has changed because you have called me to speak, but I will do my best to make a valuable contribution to the debate. It is no secret that my party and I support the devolution of policing and justice. However, as we have made clear on many occasions, that...

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

Simon Hamilton: Yes.