Part of Question for Urgent Oral Answer — Infrastructure – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 3:45 pm on 16 September 2024.
Mark Durkan
Social Democratic and Labour Party
3:45,
16 September 2024
The problems with our water and waste water systems are manifold and multifaceted. They are harmful to the environment, they are, potentially — I am grateful to hear on this occasion that they are not — harmful to health and detrimental to development. Subsequent to Mr Tennyson's question about the Minister's proposed legislation on developer contributions, I will say that developers make contributions at times along with planning applications. Does the Minister see this as an extra layer or an extra opportunity to extract more money out of developers in order to update the antiquated system?
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
