| Home | Committees | Membership | Publications | Legislation | Chronology | Commission | Tour | Search |
|
Friday 10 November 2000 Violet Street (West Belfast) Mr Adams asked the Minister of the Environment to identify the steps he intends to take to reinstate Violet Street in West Belfast following the closure of Springfield Road police station. (AQW 192/00) The Minister of the Environment (Mr Foster) [holding answer 5 October 2000]: As this is a reserved matter, it would be inappropriate for me to make any comment. Bull Bars: Accident Statistics Mr Wells asked the Minister of the Environment if he will detail the number of people killed or injured in each of the last 10 years by vehicles fitted with bull bars. (AQW 409/00) Mr Foster: I am unable to provide the information requested. Road casualty statistics are collated by the RUC. I understand that information on the number of people killed or injured by vehicles fitted with bull bars is not recorded. Mr Wells asked the Minister of the Environment if he has any plans to introduce legislation to prevent vehicles fitted with bull bars from using public roads. (AQW 410/00) Mr Foster: I have no plans to introduce legislation governing bull bars at this time. The European Commission is proposing to introduce a new pedestrian protection Directive to improve the safety of all new car fronts. That is considered the best way of preventing particularly dangerous bull bars being fitted to vehicles. The UK Government have submitted technical proposals to the European Commission setting out how bull bars could be dealt with in the anticipated Directive. When the proposed Directive is agreed, consideration will be given as to how it will be implemented in both Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Areas of Special Scientific Interest Mr Wells asked the Minister of the Environment if he will complete the designation of all the Areas of Special Scientific Interest by the end of the year 2000. (AQW 431/00) Mr Foster: It will not be possible to complete the declaration of Areas of Special Scientific Interest (ASSIs) by the end of the year 2000. I understand that a previous direct rule Administration set a target of completion by 2001. I further understand that it subsequently became clear that this target could not be met when the declaration programme had to be expanded to facilitate designations under the EC Habitats and Birds Directives. In addition, the emergence of new scientific information, particularly relating to earth science sites, has meant that more sites are now known to merit declaration than previously estimated. As many as 300 more sites may need to be declared, against a current total of 179, so it is likely to take some years to complete the programme. I am pleased to note that the additional resources proposed for my Department in the draft Budget should expedite this work and secure more extensive protection for our natural heritage. Hare Coursing Mr Wells asked the Minister of the Environment if he will detail the number of licences for the capture of hares that have been issued under the terms of the 1985 Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order since 1 January 2000 and what were the reasons given for these applications. (AQW 434/00) Mr Foster: Two permits were issued under the provisions of section 7(D) of the Game Preservation Act (NI) 1928 as amended by section 3 of the Game Law Amendment Act (NI) 1951 and schedule 12 to the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Act 1985. The permits were issued to allow for the capture of hares for coursing. Historic Buildings: Grants Ms McWilliams asked the Minister of the Environment when he will reinstate grants for the restoration of historic buildings. (AQW 447/00) Mr Foster: Historic buildings grants continue to be paid in respect of approved applications received on or before 28 October 1999. I expect to spend the full allocation of £1·7 million in this financial year. Because of the financial commitment resulting from earlier applications, acceptance of new applications received after 28 October 1999 has been suspended. New grant applications will be accepted under a revised grants policy from April 2001 on the basis that grant payments resulting from these will not be made until the following financial year. I will continue to seek sufficient additional resources for historic buildings grants in order to enable the suspension to be lifted at an earlier date. Townlands: Road Signage Mr Armstrong asked the Minister of the Environment if he will make it his policy to promote local townlands by the provision of suitable road signage. (AQW 451/00) Mr Foster: The provision of road signage of this nature is not a matter for the Department of the Environment. However, article 11 of the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Northern Ireland) Order 1995 empowers district councils to erect nameplates showing the names of streets, roads or buildings in their districts. I understand that some councils also include the appropriate townland name in such nameplates. Area Plans Mr Taylor asked the Minister of the Environment if he will detail (a) those area plans currently extant, (b) which area plans are currently in preparation, and (c) what is the estimated date for the completion of these area plans. (AQW 460/00) Mr Foster: (a) Extant area plans can be categorised into two types: (i) Those that have not yet reached their notional end date. These comprise:
(ii) Those that have passed their notional end date but remain as significant material consideration in planning decisions pending new plan coverage. These comprise:
(b) & (c) There are seven area plans currently under preparation and the estimated dates for adoption are as follows: - Lisburn (early 2001) In addition, work is scheduled to commence this financial year on the preparation of a further three area plans. These comprise: Belfast Metropolitan Area (Belfast, Carrickfergus, Castlereagh, Lisburn, Newtownabbey and North Down) Antrim/Ballymena/Larne North East/Limavady (Ballymoney, Coleraine, Moyle and Limavady). Tree Preservation Orders Mr Leslie asked the Minister of the Environment if he will detail the number of prosecutions that have been brought for contravention of tree preservation orders (TPOs) in each of the last five years. (AQW 468/00) Mr Foster: There have been no prosecutions brought for contravention of TPOs in any of the last five years. Most landowners take a responsible attitude and seek the Department’s prior consent to carry out works to protected trees. If, however, a TPO is contravened, the Department normally seeks compliance with the terms of the TPO or an appropriate remedy of any breach. This can be achieved through remedial works or a replanting scheme. If an appropriate remedy is not available then a prosecution through the courts is considered. Municipal Waste Mr Ford asked the Minister of the Environment if he will detail the proportion of municipal waste from (a) domestic and (b) non domestic sources, recycled or composted by each of the 26 district councils in each of the last five years for which figures are available. (AQW 477/00) Mr Foster: This information is not available in the detail requested, as waste management data for Northern Ireland has, until recently, been very limited. However, from a pilot survey of municipal waste carried out by the Department last year, I can tell you that the average household recycling rate for 1998-99 was just under 5%, with a total of 42,300 tonnes being recycled. The findings from the recycling element of the survey, which included composting but related only to domestic waste, are shown by district council area on the table below. A further survey is scheduled to commence this November. Table: Estimated Household Waste Recycling Rate by District Council
(Data are not available for three District Councils) Ards Hospital: Listed Building Status Mr Shannon asked the Minister of the Environment if he will confirm that Ards Hospital is a listed building and if he will give an assurance that there are no plans to alter this status. (AQW 485/00) Mr Foster: Ards Hospital, which had been a grade B listed building since 1985, was recently delisted. The Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) of my Department is currently undertaking a second survey of all buildings in Northern Ireland. As part of that, a detailed survey report on Ards Hospital was prepared. This indicated that, over the years since the complex was listed, many changes had taken place. These have proved detrimental to the historic fabric of the buildings. EHS concluded that the buildings no longer met the criteria for listing and could not be considered as having special architectural and/or historic interest. Scrabo Tower Mr Shannon asked the Minister of the Environment if he will undertake to provide the necessary funding to illuminate Scrabo Tower in Newtownards. (AQW 486/00) Mr Foster: In view of the cost, environmental impact and site management implications, I have no plans to provide funding for night-time illumination of Scrabo Tower. Water: Effluent Pollution Mrs Nelis asked the Minister of the Environment if he will detail (a) the number of incidents of water pollution from trade effluent discharges in each of the last five years, (b) the amount of such discharges collected by the Water Service Agency with trade effluent consent, and (c) the total cost occasioned by such pollutant discharges. (AQW 504/00) Mr Foster: There are two different regimes for issuing consents for trade effluent discharges. The Water Service of the Department for Regional Development administers consents for certain trade effluent discharges to the public sewer. The Environment and Heritage Service of my Department is responsible for consents under the Water Act (NI) 1977 for all discharges to waterways, including those from trade and industry. (a) The number of incidents of water pollution from trade effluent discharges to waterways is as follows:
(b) I am advised by the Minister for Regional Development that the Water Service estimate of the total quantities of consented trade effluent discharges to the public sewerage system in each of the last five years is as shown in the table below, together with the actual number of trade effluent consents:
(c) Full information on total costs is not available. Since 1997, there have been 22 prosecutions under the 1977 Act, attracting legal costs of £11,293. The cost of restoration of waterways and fisheries associated with such incidents is not readily available and could only be collated at disproportionate cost. Storm Water Discharge Mr Leslie asked the Minister of the Environment if he will outline what policy the Planning Service adopts to protect existing housing, downhill from new developments, from the impact of storm water draining from these developments. (AQW 534/00) Mr Foster: During the preparation of development plans, Planning Service consults Rivers Agency, Water Service and Roads Service on the choice of sites for future development. The environmental implications of development lands, including drainage, are assessed during this process. At planning application stage, proposals for major new development are subject to similar consultations and, in line with policy PSU10 of ‘A Planning Strategy for Rural Northern Ireland’, Rivers Agency is consulted on all aspects of storm water discharge and potential flooding. There is a general presumption against development where such development would be at risk from flooding or would be likely to increase the risk of flooding elsewhere. Dipped Headlights Mr McMenamin asked the Minister of the Environment if he will consider adopting a policy of dipped headlights on all vehicles during daylight hours. (AQW 540/00) Mr Foster: I will wish to consider this matter in the light of the conclusions of the European Commission’s current examination of the merits of using lights during daylight hours, including automatic daytime running lamps. Rule 201 of the Highway Code for Northern Ireland sets out the legal requirement to use headlights when visibility is seriously reduced – generally when one cannot see for more than 100 metres. Irish Hare Population Mr Shannon asked the Minister of the Environment if he will outline his plans to preserve the Irish hare population. (AQW 557/00) Mr Foster: My Department’s Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) published an action plan for the Irish hare on 4 October 2000. The plan’s main aims are to:
The plan lists 17 individual actions which fall to several other Departments, as well as the Department of the Environment, to achieve these aims. The additional funding proposed for EHS in the draft Budget will be helpful in achieving the aims of this plan. Curlew Population Mr Shannon asked the Minister of the Environment to detail the action he intends to take to reverse the decrease in curlew population as a result of predation by foxes. (AQW 558/00) Mr Foster: My Department’s Environment and Heritage Service (EHS) published an action plan for the curlew on 4 October 2000. The plan’s main aim is to reverse the decline in the numbers of curlew breeding in Northern Ireland. It includes two main actions for my Department that are aimed at addressing the effects of predation:
EHS is currently initiating work in this area in co-operation with the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. The additional funds proposed for EHS in the draft Budget will be helpful in progressing this important research.
Strategic Development Partnerships Mr Maskey asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel if he will detail his plans to establish strategic development partnerships as instruments to deliver Peace II funding. (AQW 435/00) The Minister of Finance and Personnel (Mr Durkan): Much valuable work has been done by district partnerships and district councils during Peace I. For Peace II it is recognised that a closer working relationship between partnerships and councils will produce further benefits and help develop structures at a local level that will be sustainable beyond the lifetime of Peace II. This could be achieved through the establishment of strategic development partnerships. One partnership would be created for each district council partnership area to assess the needs of the area on a comprehensive and integrated basis and to produce a strategic development plan for the application of the Peace II programme in the district. It is fully recognised that further discussion and consultation with all the relevant sectors will be needed to develop these ideas as effectively as possible. I have established a working group comprised of representatives from the district councils, district partnerships and intermediary funding bodies to review the range of issues involved and to produce recommendations by the end of November 2000. Population Projections Mr Adams asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel if he will detail the estimated population for the years 2000, 2005 and 2010 by local government area. (AQW 440/00) Mr Durkan: Population projections by age and sex for Northern Ireland by local government district were produced for the first time by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency on 19 October 2000. The projections are based on 1998 local government district mid-year population estimates and on extrapolation of trends in fertility, mortality and migration. As such, they intentionally do not include any demographic effects of future planned social or economic policies. The specific statistics requested are detailed in the table below. Population by Local Government District -
Note: totals may not add due to rounding Children’s Fund Ms McWilliams asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel if he will ensure that any funds allocated to Northern Ireland from the Children’s Fund are ring- fenced for expenditure on children in Northern Ireland. (AQW 448/00) Mr Durkan: No spending within Northern Ireland’s departmental expenditure limit (DEL) was ring-fenced for addressing the aims of the Chancellor’s Children’s Fund in the 2000 spending review announcement in July 2000. However, the Executive programme funds detailed in the 2001-02 Budget proposals have made provision of £27 million (2001-02 — £2 million; 2002-03 — £10 million; & 2003-04 — £15 million) for the creation of a Children’s Fund that would provide support for children in need and youth at risk. The Chancellor allocated £450 million over three years (2001-02 — £100 million, 2002-03 — £150 million & 2003-04 — £200 million) to his Children’s Fund. A strict application of the Barnett formula would have delivered only £15 million to Northern Ireland, so the Budget proposals deliver more resources than would have been the case if the fund had been ring-fenced. Department: Special Advisers Mr Ford asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel if he will provide a list of those appointed as special advisers within his Department, detailing in each case (a) the date appointment was offered, (b) the date employment commenced, (c) the gender of the appointee, (d) whether or not the appointee is disabled, (e) whether or not the appointment was as a result of open competition, and (f) whether the appointee held membership of any political party on the date appointment was offered. (AQW 465/00) Mr Durkan: I have appointed one special adviser. Special advisers have the status of temporary civil servants. Name: Damian Gerard McAteer a. Date appointment was offered:14 September 2000 b. Date employment commenced:18 September 2000 c. Gender of the appointee:Male d. It is Civil Service policy to afford a high degree of confidentiality to individual monitoring information, including that on disability. e. Special advisers are appointed under the Civil Service Commissioners (Northern Ireland) Order 1999, article 3(2) of which disapplies the principle of selection on merit on the basis of fair and open competition where an appointment to a situation in the Civil Service is made for the purpose of providing advice to Ministers during a period terminating on or before the end of an Administration. f. All civil servants, including special advisers, are entitled to hold membership of a political party, although political activity is restricted according to their role. Information on membership of a political party is not held for special advisers or any other civil servants. Peace II Programme Dr Birnie asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel to confirm that economic sustainability will be included in the criteria for funding under the Peace II programme. (AQO 241/00) Mr Durkan: Economic and social sustainability is one of the horizontal principles contained in the Community Support Framework for Northern Ireland and will serve as a guideline for all those involved in the implementation of the Peace II programme. In managing the Peace II programme, the programme monitoring committee, in consultation with the managing authority (the Special EU Programmes Body) will seek to ensure that an assessment of sustainability for all projects that might require public funding in order to continue will be of critical importance. In assessing projects, all funding bodies will be required to bear in mind that all operations funded should, by the end of the programming period, have developed an appropriate exit strategy, that is they should either have completed the task for which they have been funded, have become self-sustaining or have identified alternative sources of funding. Mr B Bell asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel to detail input by local government into the consultation process on the Peace II programme; and to make a statement. (AQO 236/00) Mr Durkan: The consultation process on the development of the new EU structural funds programmes, including Peace II, has been underway since August 1998, when DFP invited written comments from over 200 local partners, including all 26 district councils, on the spending priorities to be included in the Northern Ireland structural funds plan. Two major consultation conferences were held in May 1999 and September 1999, which all district councils were invited to attend, and following these conferences a collective paper was forwarded by the councils in October 1999 that further informed the process of writing the plan. After the Executive Committee approved the plan as a basis for negotiation, an interim community support framework monitoring committee (ICSFMC) was established in April 2000 that also included district council representatives. This provided a mechanism for ongoing consultation during the negotiations with the European Commission on the new Community Support Framework (CSF) for Northern Ireland and enabled local partners, including the councils, to continue to input their views. For the future, there will be local government representation on each of the three monitoring committees to be established to oversee and monitor the implementation of structural funds assistance; this includes a monitoring committee for the Peace II programme. The structure and membership of these committees was based on recommendations drawn up by a working group of the ICSFMC. Separately from the ICSFMC, I have also met with the local government structural funds support group, which represents the district councils, on 19 July 2000 to discuss their proposals for the new round of structural funds. Most recently I have also asked a working group consisting of representatives of district councils, district partnerships and intermediary funding bodies to let me have proposals for developing the role and intended functions of future partnerships in each local area of Northern Ireland. Mr Beggs asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel to update the Assembly on the implementation of the Peace II programme; and to make a statement. (AQO 235/00) Mr Durkan: The Peace II programme is one of two operational programmes contained in the European Commission’s Community Support Framework (CSF) for Northern Ireland 2000-2006. The Commission has not yet formally adopted its CSF, but I expect that to happen very shortly. In the meantime, negotiation meetings with the Commission to agree the Peace II operational programme have started and will continue for some weeks yet. Parallel to these negotiations, arrangements have been put in place to appoint members to the monitoring committee that is to be established, initially in shadow form pending the adoption of the operational programme. One of the responsibilities of the monitoring committee will be to agree the programme complement, setting out details such as eligibility criteria and designated final beneficiaries. Calls for projects are likely to be issued early next year and funds should be made available to project promoters shortly thereafter. Ex-Prisoners’ Groups: Funding Mr Dodds asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel if he will detail what funding was allocated from (a) the European Union and (b) other funds to projects and groups associated with ex-prisoners in each of the last five years. (AQW 489/00) Mr Durkan: The Northern Ireland Voluntary Trust (NIVT) is the intermediary funding body responsible for selecting the ex-prisoners’ groups projects funded under the European Special Support Programme for Peace and Reconciliation (the Peace I programme) and the Northern Ireland Single Programme (Physical and Social Environment Programme). The following table shows the amount of EU and Government funding allocated by NIVT to ex-prisoners’ groups under each programme over the last five years. It should be noted that ex-prisoners’ groups also have access to funding from other sources, such as private trusts, local and national charities and the Lottery, but this information is not held by Departments.
Barnett Formula Mrs I Robinson asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel if he will detail (a) what changes he has sought to the Barnett formula, (b) what changes he has achieved, and (c) what further changes are pending. (AQW 507/00) Mr Durkan: The First Minister and the Deputy First Minister and I have made representations to HM Treasury to press for expenditure allocations that reflect the higher levels of need in Northern Ireland. In response, HM Treasury has agreed to a correction in the adjustment that is applied to reflect the difference in the treatment of VAT on spending programmes in Northern Ireland. Also, spending in England on the London Underground has been included in the coverage of the formula for the first time. These changes are worth some £40 million extra a year to Northern Ireland over the 2000 spending review period. HM Treasury has also agreed to provide additional CAP funding for modulation payments of £3 million, £4 million and £4·5 million over the 2000 spending review period. This was an acknowledgement that a simple Barnett (population-based) allocation was insufficient for Northern Ireland. I will continue to press for expenditure allocations that fully reflect the higher levels of need in Northern Ireland. North/South Bodies Mr Dodds asked the Minister of Finance and Personnel if he will detail the costs of each of the seven North/South bodies for 2001-02. (AQW 523/00) Mr Durkan: Final estimates for the implementation bodies have yet to be approved by the Northern Ireland Executive and the Irish Government. I shall write to you as soon as the allocations are confirmed. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||