Minutes of the meeting held on Tuesday, 1 August 2006 in Room 135, Parliament Buildings.

In the Chair: Jim Wells

Present: Dr Esmond Birnie
John Dallat
David Ford
Michelle Gildernew MP
Nelson McCausland
Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP
Barry McElduff
David McNarry
Sean Neeson
Peter Weir

In Attendance: Alan Patterson (Principal Clerk)
Colin Jones (Assistant Clerk)
Trevor Allen (Clerical Supervisor)
Dr Peter Gilleece (Assembly Research)

The meeting commenced at 10.07am in closed session.

1. Apologies

Ian Paisley Jnr (Mr McCausland attended the meeting as DUP representative in place of Mr Paisley Jnr).

Margaret Ritchie (John Dallat attended the meeting as SDLP representative in place of Ms Ritchie).

Mitchel McLaughlin (Mr McElduff attended the meeting as SF representative in place of Mr McLaughlin).

2. Draft Minutes of Meeting on 27 July 2006

These were agreed for publication on the Assembly’s website.

Mr Molloy joined the meeting at 10.10am as an observer.
Mr Ford joined the meeting at 10.10am.

3. Matters Arising

Members noted the letter to the Secretary of State issued on 31 July, regarding Ministers’ attendance and advance notice of future initiatives, which had been agreed at the previous meeting.

Members were advised that the Northern Ireland Tourist Board were unable to attend today but will attend on 10 August to give evidence. They were also advised that Mivan were unable to attend to give oral evidence, but would provide a written submission.

The Chairman drew Members attention to research papers included in the meeting papers by Professor Richard Harris and Dr John Bradley and to further information provided by InterTradeIreland.

The Chairman stated that no proposed amendments had been received from Members for the draft transcript of the meeting on 25 July 2006. This had now been cleared for publication.

The draft transcript of the meeting on 27 July was circulated to Members.

Arrangements were agreed for the forthcoming meeting on emerging themes on 3 August at 3.30pm.

Dr McDonnell joined the meeting at 10.14am.

4. Revised Work Programme

Members considered a revised work programme of evidence sessions and a list of other potential witnesses, together with those organisations asked to provide written evidence.

It was agreed that a memo should issue to the Preparation for Government Committee seeking a one-week extension to the deadline for the sub-group’s report until 25 August 2006.

5. Evidence Sessions

The meeting continued in open session at 10.20am.
Mr Neeson joined the meeting at 10.25am.

The sub-group took evidence from Mr John Simpson, Economist.

Mr McNarry left the meeting at 11.15am.
Mr McNarry joined the meeting at 11.40am.

The sub-group took evidence from officials from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment.

Ms Gildernew left the meeting at 12.15pm.
Mr Ford left the meeting at 12.27pm.
Ms Gildernew joined the meeting at 12.50pm.
Mr Wells and Mr McNarry left the meeting at 12.55pm.

Mr Molloy took the chair at 12.55 pm.

The sub-group took evidence from Enterprise Northern Ireland.

Mr Dallat left the meeting at 1.42pm.

The meeting continued in closed session at 1.45pm.

6. Review of Evidence

Members agreed to leave the review of evidence received to date until the afternoon meeting on Thursday 3rd August.

7. Any Other Business

Subject to amendments, Members agreed a draft press release for issue.

Members noted the written submission received from the Quarry Products Association.

8. Next Meeting

The next meeting of the sub-group was arranged for Thursday 3 August 2006 at 10.00 am.

The meeting adjourned at 1.50pm.