Mervyn Storey: Madam Speaker, I concur with the words of congratulation on your appointment as Speaker of this Assembly. As the Member for Lagan Valley Edwin Poots said, the representatives of Sinn Féin/IRA are absent. Of course, the Member rightly mentioned that the planning history of that party is something of which we should not be unmindful. I also draw Members’ attention to the republican policy...
Mervyn Storey: I agree with the Member. One has only to search the DARD website to see that no information on Draft PPS 14 is available. The Department has failed the farming community abysmally on the issue. It has provided a clear example of there being no such thing as joined-up government. It is a misnomer. I urge the Minister and the Department to look again at the draft policy. Why should we use, as...
Mervyn Storey: Does the hon Member agree with me that one of the reasons for the absence of Sinn Féin/IRA representatives in the Chamber is that they have no fiscal policy? In fact, in their proposals for the finance of the Irish Republic, they have actually proposed that those levies should be increased. It is a matter of embarrassment as to why they are not here, and it is a matter of inability because...
Mervyn Storey: I welcome, and concur with, the comments made today by many colleagues. In particular, I endorse the comments made by the hon Member for East Antrim, Mr Dawson. When one comes to this stage of a debate it is always difficult: many of the issues have been covered and the points made. One recurring point seems to be that we are glad to support the Member for East Londonderry, Mr Dallat, for...
Mervyn Storey: No, I will not give way. The third statement reads: “The removal of industrial derating will give an enormous boost to the Northern Ireland economy.” I see some Members beginning to shift nervously in their seats. They can relax, because that last statement is not true; it was made up. I read those first two statements not to castigate or to embarrass either the Ulster Unionist Party or...
Mervyn Storey: On a point of order, Madam Speaker.
Mervyn Storey: It is. The accusation has been made that I was in some way inaccurate. I have the SDLP’s official response to the review of the rating policy, and for accuracy, I will continue to read from it. It states: “We therefore support this proposal”. I may have not had a third-level education, but I can read and understand what that paper says.
Mervyn Storey: As well as seeking to make savings in health and education services, amongst others, Government must ensure that their own house is in order in relation to financial management and savings. The hon Member the Deputy Leader of my party referred earlier to the “puppet” Secretary of State, who would like to pull strings to operate this House. It is time that he pulled the strings of those...
Mervyn Storey: The Hon Member should recall that the failure and the faults of the previous Assembly created some of the financial crises that we have experienced, so we should not be begging, cap in hand, for the restoration of the failed structures of the Belfast Agreement. The hon Member earlier referred to the regional rate. It was the old Assembly — the failed Belfast Agreement version of this...
Mervyn Storey: The hon Member from the Ulster Unionist Party should also bear responsibility, because his party negotiated the Belfast Agreement and brought about the situation in which the 7% increase was introduced. The published Department-by-Department figures for the net administrative cost are interesting and bear some scrutiny. Adding up the net administrative costs for Northern Ireland Departments...
Mervyn Storey: Will the Member give way?
Mervyn Storey: Will the Member give way?
Mervyn Storey: On a point of order, Madam Speaker. The issue that I wished to raise was not an example of petty squabbling. I wanted to raise a matter of fact with the Member. That was why I asked her to give way.
Mervyn Storey: This is a point that we wanted to raise earlier with the hon Member from the SDLP. There has been a £50 million reduction in the Roads Service’s maintenance budget. Under the Review of Public Administration, roads provision will become the responsibility of the new councils. Does the Member agree that one of the first tasks for the new super-councils will be to raise the rates in order to...
Mervyn Storey: Does the hon Member for East Londonderry also agree about, and include in that list, the abolition of the Civic Forum, which cost the previous Assembly and the taxpayers of Northern Ireland over £2 million and delivered absolutely nothing?
Mervyn Storey: Northern Ireland’s economy has been forced to exist in extreme and torturous times. One example among many that I could cite is that of the traditional manufacturing jobs that have disappeared to low-wage economies in the Far East and eastern Europe. Furthermore, no true debate could be conducted on the Northern Ireland economy and the need to take the right action now if Members were to...
Mervyn Storey: Of course I concur with my hon Friend. Sinn Féin is very good at trying to bring its conscience and concerns to the public domain. Obviously, in real terms it is devoid of anything to say. I refer Members to the submission made by IRA/Sinn Féin. The party complained that: “Neither did we have adequate time to resolve all of our differences in analysis”. The party was looking for more...
Mervyn Storey: I am glad to speak in this debate and to put on record the DUP’s position, and not some assertion by the SDLP in a foreign language that we cannot understand. I will state my party’s position in the Queen’s English: there will be no deal under the terms of the Belfast Agreement. It is clear that the Belfast Agreement is dead and it ain’t coming back. Members on the opposite side of...
Mervyn Storey: I agree entirely. Joining the Policing Board makes Sinn Féin members no more committed to the rule of law than coming into this Building makes them unionists. When the Sinn Féin cavalcade passed Carson’s statue, no one believed that, all of a sudden, its members had become unionists. I commend the comments made by the Member for West Belfast earlier in the debate, when he painted a...
Mervyn Storey: When I was a child growing up in the early days of the troubles, SDLP representatives did not encourage their community to support, or join, the RUC. The party is late in joining the debate on policing. The party has now destroyed the morale and capabilities of the RUC. SDLP Members come out with diatribes, while offering some semblance of support for the police. This Assembly has no...