Mr Oliver Gibson: 5. asked the Minister for Social Development to confirm that the maximum a single unemployed person can obtain, combining income support and attendance allowance, is £75·59. (AQO 1375/00)
Mr Oliver Gibson: 6. asked the Minister of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment to detail (a) his plans to make third level education available in West Tyrone and (b) the start date for the new college in Omagh. (AQO 1373/00)
Mr Oliver Gibson: When will opportunities to work in all the faculties of third-level educational institutions be available to those of my constituents who are in full-time and part-time employment? What efforts are being made to use information technology more widely as a means of communication, rather than having students or part-time workers travelling long distances to university campuses?
Mr Oliver Gibson: 8. asked the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment to outline the steps he is taking to stimulate economic investment in West Tyrone. (AQO 1374/00)
Mr Oliver Gibson: In what areas of information technology communications — telecom or other providers — is west Tyrone deficient at the moment? What is being done to enable it to take on industrial and economical development on a footing that is equal to that of others?
Mr Oliver Gibson: Over £200 million was spent in west Tyrone on rural development, creating just over 200 farm diversification schemes. Those schemes, because of their dependence on agriculture, are now under threat. I support the Minister’s point.
Mr Oliver Gibson: My question fits somewhere into the "hierarchy of need" that the Minister mentioned. Does the Minister have any plans to give financial aid to farmers whose breeding stock has had to be slaughtered as a result of the ban on movement and sales?
Mr Oliver Gibson: How will the carcass tagging of 20-inch salmon prevent the overnetting and illegal netting that have been so prevalent in parts of the Foyle, Derg and Mourne rivers?
Mr Oliver Gibson: I welcome the opportunity to speak. I will focus, particularly, on pages 27 and 28 that deal with the key principles for common formula funding. These are the fundamental principles that underpin the direction and the objectives involved. The first point that I want to make, not just to the Minister but to everyone in the Assembly, was made yesterday afternoon when many of us on these Benches...
Mr Oliver Gibson: I welcome this legislation. I have three areas of major concern. First, will the Minister tell us when this legislation is going to kick in? In other words, precisely when will this legislation start? My second point is in relation to the bond, which has already been mentioned by Cllr Hay. In Omagh we have a no-man’s-land —
Mr Oliver Gibson: I stand corrected, Mr Speaker. My last question is the most important of all. Will this not add to the cost of houses? After all, who pays for all of this? I wish to be assured by the Minister that for those people who wish to purchase property, there will not be an added bill that prohibits them from doing so.
Mr Oliver Gibson: I congratulate the Minister on his forthright condemnation of those who imported the foot-and- mouth plague. Mavericks spread it, and it is threatening the community. We have been trying to create farm diversification in west Tyrone for six years. We have encouraged many farm businesses that were finding it difficult to survive to try to diversify. Many of those businesses have been...
Mr Oliver Gibson: I am sometimes amazed by statements that I hear in the House. I thought that it was the role of the Business Committee to make businesslike proposals. I thought that those, in particular, who are so adamant that this place should work, would demonstrate a businesslike administration of their work. However, they are really admitting to the parties’ inability to organise themselves — that...
Mr Oliver Gibson: In view of the low standards in the South of Ireland — perhaps the lowest in Europe — why does the Minister see benefits in our harmonising with the South of Ireland in every field of education? Northern Ireland, where a review of education is ongoing, has some of the best standards of education in Europe. Are we not harmonising downwards, rather than trying to achieve success for pupils...
Mr Oliver Gibson: What arrangements are being made for my constituents in West Tyrone? Directly or indirectly, they have been distressed financially. As the Social Security Agency’s personnel cannot visit due to foot-and- mouth disease and our constituency offices are being used as form-filling centres, that distress is compounded. Can the Minister assure us that some arrangements will be made for the...
Mr Oliver Gibson: I want to conclude more simply. The reply is still "No Surrender."
Mr Oliver Gibson: I am surprised to hear some people say that today’s debate is frivolous, expensive or foolish. However, when I listened to the comments of Alban Maginness I was reminded of a warning I got as a young child to "Never lay your wits to the witless." I am here to record before the Assembly the feelings of people in West Tyrone. I want to speak up on behalf of the 97 families who had members...
Mr Oliver Gibson: That includes anyone who was murdered by cowards. I want to remember my schoolmaster colleague Ivan Anderson, who was murdered on his way home from work. I want to remember the schoolmaster who died a lingering death on a trolley, and who had taught my children and my neighbours’ children. I want to remember my colleague, then headmaster of Castlederg High School, whom they attempted to...
Mr Oliver Gibson: On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. It appears that the clock is not working.
Mr Oliver Gibson: I welcome the opportunity to speak on this issue. On 29 January I had a unique opportunity. I joined in Brussels with councillors from all over Europe to form the Confederation of European Councillors. The first act of the confederation was carried out on Sunday 28 January — a cold but sunny winter’s day. The councillors joined together in the largest cemetery in Flanders field and...