COMMITTEE FOR EDUCATION
MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS
Friday, 16 November 2007
Room 135, PARLIAMENT BUILDINGS
Present:
Mr D Bradley (Deputy Chairperson)
Mrs M Bradley
Rt Hon J Donaldson
Mr B McCrea
Miss M McIlveen
Ms M O’Neill
Mr M Storey
In Attendance:
Mr J Simmons (Assembly Clerk)
Mrs K O’Hanlon (Assistant Assembly Clerk)
Mr D Douglas (Clerical Supervisor)
Ms U McCanny (Clerical Officer)
Apologies:
Mr S Wilson (Chairperson)
Mr P Butler
Mr T Lunn
Mr K Robinson
The Deputy Chairperson opened the meeting at 10.37am in public session.
-
Apologies
Apologies are detailed above .
-
Minutes of the Meeting of 9 November 2007
Agreed – the Committee approved the draft minutes of the meeting of 9 November 2007.
-
Matters Arising from the Minutes
(A) The Committee noted the response from the Minister of Education regarding the Development Proposal for Blackwater Integrated College.
(B) The Committee noted the response from the Minister of Education regarding environmental issues at Anahorish Primary School.
(C) The Committee noted the Department’s response to the Committee for Health, Social Services and Public Safety’s Inquiry into the Prevention of Suicide and Self Harm.
Agreed – Members will notify the Clerk if they wish to comment or add to the Department’s response by Friday 23 November 2007.
(D) The Committee noted the response from the Department regarding literacy interventions.
Agreed – the Committee approved the draft response.
-
Correspondence
(A) The Committee noted the correspondence from the Deputy Director of Youthnet.
Agreed – the Committee approved the draft response.(B) The Committee noted three items of correspondence from individual classroom assistants.
Agreed – the Committee approved the draft responses.
The Committee also noted a number of recent press articles and statements regarding the classroom assistants’ dispute.(C) The Committee noted the paper from the Northern Ireland Legal Services Commission, ‘Financial Eligibility for Civil Legal Aid in Northern Ireland: A Consultation Paper on Proposals for Reform’.
(D) The Committee noted the response from the Department regarding Strabane Controlled Primary School.
(E) The Committee noted three Departmental Press Releases: “Ruane Launches Sport Programme for Primary Schools”; “Youth Centres are a Vital Part of our Community – Ruane”; and a Media Invite to the North/South Ministerial Council Meeting of the Education Sector.
-
Draft Work Programme
The Committee agreed its work programme up to and including Friday 23 November 2007.
-
Departmental Briefing on the Draft Budget, the Draft Programme for Government and the Draft Investment Strategy
Dr Eddie Rooney, Deputy Secretary; Catherine Daly, Head of Finance; and Brian Morrow, Financial Planning Branch, Department of Education, joined the meeting at 10.40am. The officials gave a brief continuation presentation on the implications of the Draft Budget 2008 – 11, the Draft Programme for Government 2008 – 11 and the Draft Investment Strategy 2008 – 18 on education. Officials answered questions on a number of issues, including: funding for the literacy and numeracy strategy; primary school funding; funding to areas of deprivation and targeting social need; the distribution of funding under the Common Funding Formula; funding and performance indicators for services for Children and Young People; and how the Department’s spending priorities will relate to the Public Service Agreements.
The meeting moved into closed session at 11.14am. Officials and Members discussed further points regarding the Department’s overall resource budget position and prospective priorities for the period 2008 to 2011. The Chairperson thanked the officials for an informative briefing and they left the meeting at 12.27pm.
Miss McIlveen left the meeting at 11.31am.
Rt Hon J Donaldson joined the meeting at 11.49am.
Mr Storey left the meeting at 12.01pm.
Mr Storey rejoined the meeting at 12.07pm.
Mrs Bradley left the meeting at 12.11pm.
Mrs Bradley rejoined the meeting at 12.16pm.
-
Date, time and place of next meeting
The next meeting will be held on Tuesday 20 November 2007 at 3.30pm in Room 135, Parliament Buildings.
The Chairperson adjourned the meeting at 12.31pm.