2008-09 December Monitoring Round and Executive Response to the Economic Downturn

Part of Ministerial Statement – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 1:30 pm on 15 December 2008.

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Photo of Lord Maurice Morrow Lord Maurice Morrow DUP 1:30, 15 December 2008

I, too, welcome that scheme. Most of the SDLP foxes must have been shot this morning, because they are distinctly quiet. Despite the fact that that party tried to turn this into a negative morning, it is a positive one, which the SDLP should recognise by standing up and so saying. It is a pity that the SDLP Minister is not here. However, I suspect that she has another duty to perform.

I particularly welcome the fact that two major water-infrastructure schemes, amounting to £26 million, are to go ahead at Dungannon and Moygashel. Those are welcome and long overdue. In the Minister’s statement, he welcomed NIE’s announcement today that it will decrease its tariff by 10·8%. It is good news that prices are going in the right direction. However, I am sure that the Minister agrees that those price reductions must go further. We will watch developments with interest. We urge the Minister and the Executive to keep a very close eye on that matter.

Furthermore, I am pleased that, rather than doing what others have decided to do, the Minister of Finance and Personnel has stepped in to take the lead on the issue of fuel poverty. Fast-track payments will provide some relief to pensioners in Northern Ireland. Does the Minister agree that the rolling-out of the scheme is imperative? Does he also agree that that should be done effectively, efficiently and quickly?

Many struggling pensioners will take considerable comfort from the measures that the Minister outlined in his statement. I ask the Minister again to give an assurance that fast-track payments will be expedited as quickly as possible. It is a fact that the Executive will make a payment of £150 to more than 100,000 householders who are in receipt of income support and pension credit — 65,000 and 36,000 respectively. That is to be welcomed. I commend the Minister for his positive attitude. If others had adopted the same attitude earlier in the year, that measure could have been implemented before Christmas.