COMMITTEE OF THE CENTRE
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS:
WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2001.
IN BT (NI) TOWER, BELFAST

Present: Mr Edwin Poots MLA (Chairperson)
Mr Roy Beggs Jnr MLA
Dr Esmond Birnie MLA
Mrs Annie Courtney MLA
Ms Michelle Gildernew MLA
Dr Alasdair McDonnell MLA
Mr Ken Robinson MLA
Mr Jim Shannon MLA

In Attendance: Mrs Debbie Pritchard (Principal Committee Clerk)
Mr Hugh Farren (Committee Clerk)
Mrs Gillian Lewis
Mr Tim Moore

Apologies: Mr Oliver Gibson MLA (Deputy Chairperson)
Mrs Eileen Bell
Mr Fred Cobain MLA
Mr David Ervine MLA
Mr James Leslie MLA
Ms Patricia Lewsley MLA
Mr Alex Maskey MLA
Mr Conor Murphy MLA
Mr Eugene McMenamin MLA

The Committee visited BT (NI) where they received a presentation from BT about their current work projects involving e-commerce.

Ms Gildernew left the meeting at 2.30pm.

1. Apologies

The apologies are listed above.

The meeting went into closed session at 2.45pm.

2. Matters arising

The Committee discussed the draft Public Service Agreement (PSA) for the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister. Members noted that adequate time had not been allowed for proper consideration of the document and that the draft PSA falls far short of the standard set by the White Paper on "2000 Spending Review: Public Service Agreements", which was presented to Parliament by the Chief Secretary to the Treasury in July 2000. The Committee agreed that its response should be accompanied by the detailed comments set out in the document before it.
Action: Clerk

Mr Shannon joined the meeting at 2.50pm.

The closed session of the meeting concluded at 2.50pm.

3. Presentation by Central Information Technology Unit (NI) of the Office of the First Minister and Deputy First Minister

Ms Linda Connolly gave a demonstration of OnlineNI citizen portal and Professor Des Vincent updated the members on resources allocated to the provision of e-Government.

Dr Birnie left the meeting at 3.15pm.

Dr McDonnell left the meeting at 3.25pm.

4. Date and time of next meeting

The Committee will next meet on Wednesday, 14 February 2001 at 2.00pm in Room 144, Parliament Buildings.

The visit finished at 3.30pm.

Councillor Edwin Poots MLA
Chairperson, Committee of the Centre
14 February 2001