Less than a year before the USA chooses a new President, Jim Naughtie finds that many Americans no longer believe in the American Dream. The BBC Today Programme presenter has covered every presidential election since 1988 and is discussing the current state of US politics after speaking at the Belfast Festival at Queen’s.

“Many Americans, say aged between 30 and 50, are profoundly sceptical of the idea with which they grew up, that it was almost an inheritance of theirs that every generation would be better off than the one before,” he comments.

That idea of constant progress was treated as an “absolute fact” that “made you an American” but now rings hollow in the Rust Belt and across the South. Indebtedness to China and Japan are major worries. Together, those countries hold around 45 per cent of US foreign debt.

“The idea that America no longer rules the waves is one that [has] really taken hold,” Naughtie reflects with some regret. “It’s extremely hard to use the word pessimism in relation to the States because it’s the most optimistic country in the world. And there will be a huge amount of rhetoric [this year] about ‘the Americans will bounce back, we’ll do it, that’s what we are etc. etc.’ but I think underneath that there’s a real lurking fear that it’s no longer true.”

A decade of conflict since 9/11 has added to that fear. Realising the threat of terrorism was a “profound shock” and Americans are “slightly bewildered” that they are no safer after the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions. Around 6,200 US troops have died and 47,000 have been injured in both campaigns.

An old saying goes that voters don’t make up their minds after baseball’s World Series is over, which makes for a lot of deciding in the last week of October.

Obama will undoubtedly have to “carry the can” for unemployment, pay cuts and repossessions on his watch and there is now a “sense of quite steep disillusionment” among young people.

Turning to the Republican side, Naughtie adds: “There is absolutely no doubt that the person that the White House fears most is Mitt because he is competent. He is actually more personable than he was in the last campaign.”

Mitt Romney avoids the false conspiracy theories about Obama and instead paints him as “rather a nice guy” who wants the same things as him but “doesn’t know how the world works”. To win the primaries, though, Romney will play to the Tea Party with right-wing rhetoric.

“It’s beyond me to imagine that they could nominate Rick Perry but it’s not impossible,” Naughtie adds. While the Texas Governor is a “seasoned politician,” he has shown a “real lack of grip” on the Middle East, among other issues.

Romney’s weaknesses are his liberalism, faith and wealth. As Massachusetts Governor, he introduced a nearly universal health insurance plan. Many evangelicals “regard Mormonism as a cult” and it’s also “very easy to portray him as a very rich, smooth, Wall Street corporate fat cat, largely because that is indeed what he is.”

Although Americans frequently talk about freedom, enterprise and the American Dream, “very rich folks from Wall Street are not the flavour of the month” at the moment. However, Naughtie’s hunch is “if the Republican Party is serious about winning the election, they should nominate him.”

His own experience of America goes back to studying at Syracuse, upstate New York, back in the mid-1970s. He clearly regrets the polarisation and growing cynicism in its society, which in turn causes serious political damage.

The American constitutional settlement assumed that parties in Congress would search for consensus but his sources in Washington are “very gloomy about the prospects of any administration and Congress being able to sort out some of the deep-seated problems because the ideological rift is so profound now.”

Partisan talk shows and radio reflect the prejudices of their audiences, who are “not interested in hearing another point of view”. An ex-army colonel and Tea Party activist whom he met in Kentucky only listened to Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck.

Getting answers

Hearing that makes him more proud of British radio’s style: “We have managed to preserve in this country the idea of the interview as being something that is an opportunity for people to hear their concerns, their questions, being put and answered.”

For almost every interview, his rule is: “You work out what the one thing is you want to know or you’ve at least got to be determined to get at, and everything else is a bonus.”

Going with the conversational flow is better than sticking to a plan. An alert interviewer who listens to the answers can pick up something intriguing, unexpected or surprising.

Naughtie sums up: “In a good interview, the person being interviewed has always had an opportunity to put their case across, assuming they’ve got one, but the question that most of your listeners want to hear asked has been asked and answered.” The art of it is “letting people feel that they really have learnt something, that light has been cast on something.”

On radio, it’s hard to avoid interrupting a down-the-line interview and eye contact makes the process much more straightforward. “Politicians and experienced people know it. When they’re actually there, it’s much better for us and it’s much better for them too,” he comments.

Realistically, some BBC services to the public will be hit by cuts. That said, he thinks that austerity is forcing to BBC to “think very hard” about its core values and what it does best.

“The BBC can never win because it’s got to try to please everybody, which is impossible,” he quips. With News International on the defensive, when it could otherwise be criticising the licence fee, this is “rather a happy coincidence.”

Reactions to Sands’ death

A compelling weekly bulletin from the Northern Ireland Office (file NIO/12/194A) describes the first week of May 1981 in grim detail. The medical prognosis of the hunger strikers had a direct bearing on the security situation outside the jail.

“As anticipated in the last bulletin Sands’ condition became critical at the weekend when he lapsed into a coma on Sunday morning [3 May],” it records. “He did not regain consciousness before his death at 01.17 hours early on Tuesday 5, the 66th day of his fast.”

Secretary of State Humphrey Atkins regretted a “needless and pointless death” before adding: “We should not forget the many others who have died.” Atkins urged the people of Northern Ireland to “recognise the futility of violence and turn their faces away from it.” A press statement from republican prisoners blamed the British Government “primarily” for his death but also condemned “politicians and other leading people” for their alleged “timidity and lack of courage”.

The document goes on to report “rioting for most of the day in Belfast” on 4 May and “heavy petrol bombing of RUC targets plus factories, commercial premises and a Methodist church” after Sands’ death. An RUC officer was shot dead in North Belfast on 6 May and an INLA terrorist killed by his own bomb.

A “marked increase in shooting incidents overnight” (6-7 May) suggested that “[IRA] terrorist action will be stepped up to maintain the campaign impetus.”

Robinson’s prison hostage offer

Peter Robinson was prepared to take a government offer to loyalist prisoners holding four prison officers hostage, according to NIO notes (file CENT/1/10/91). The incident happened at Crumlin Road jail and was discussed at a meeting at Stormont Castle starting at 9.15pm on 11 December 1981.

Robinson met NIO Minister of State Adam Butler as part of the Ulster Loyalist Prisoners’ Rights Committee. He warned that “the prison might be burnt down” and said he had been “shouting up to some of the prisoners taking part in the protest and had been told the hostages were being well treated.”

If the committee members could meet the prisoners and take an offer from the Government, he expected that the warders would be released. A Mr McDonald, also on the committee, was “concerned [that] the irresponsible element in the prison would take over completely.”

Butler insisted that third parties could not negotiate with protesting prisoners. “It was a matter for the prison authorities to handle,” as had happened in Great Britain. However, the committee “bore a heavy responsibility if they had the prisoners’ trust and it was essential that they should try to encourage and influence the situation to reduce tension.”

Robinson countered that another NIO Minister, Lord Gowrie, and “all sorts of people” had gone to the Maze to ask the hunger strikers to call off their protest. He warned that if anything happened to the warders, “it would be on the Minister’s conscience.” Ulster Unionist John Carson, a UUP councillor and former North Belfast MP, added: “Protestant feelings were running very high especially when it seemed that Republican prisoners had won all their demands, whilst Loyalist prisoners were being ignored.”

Butler suggested that the committee make an appeal on radio to end the protest, but this was rejected as ineffective. After two and a half hours, both sides agreed that the committee would tell prisoners, through a loud hailer, that they could meet elected representatives if the protest ended; the Government would announce a review of conditions at Crumlin Road for remand prisoners; Lord Gowrie would meet “conforming prisoners” at an early opportunity.

The prison officers were subsequently released.

Leading profiles

Frank profiles of political and church figures by NIO staff (file CENT/1/10/36A) indicate their fears that moderate figures were being overshadowed by loud hard line voices.

Ian Paisley “gained his reputation as a fundamentalist preacher with violently anti-catholic views” in the late 1950s and was “far removed from the old traditional middle class unionism”. His majority in North Antrim was “impregnable”.

Catholic Primate Tomás Ó Fiaich was clearly resented: “His public pronouncements tend to gain him notoriety, believing in a phased British withdrawal from the North. He rejects violence, but has on occasion been far from helpful on the prisons issue.” The main Protestant church leaders, all seen as ecumenical, were viewed much more positively.

John Hume had been “an effective Minister of Commerce” and is described as: “Altogether an academically minded, moderate politician.” Jim Molyneaux is curiously listed third out of the four main political leaders, perhaps reflecting NIO frustration: “Rather lacking in populist appeal, his lack of flair may have contributed to the UUP’s steady loss of support to the DUP.”

The DUP had narrowly overtaken the UUP, in first preferences, at the local elections on 20 May (26.57 per cent to 26.56 per cent), more than doubling its vote from 12.7 per cent in 1977. “Not a charismatic man, but an effective leader” was the summary for Alliance’s Oliver Napier.

In economic terms, Northern Ireland was a “uniquely distressed region of the UK” with “exceptionally high unemployment” (17.6 per cent and 101,522 persons in May 1981) and a “high degree of dependence on declining staple industries”. Several factories were at risk of closure, according to official predictions, and the futures of “Shorts and especially Harland and Wolff are not assured in the longer term.”

‘Catholic support’ for shared college

Many Catholic teachers supported a shared teaching training centre, but feared speaking out “because it might harm their job prospects.” The claim was made by Mr Mallaghan from All Children Together (a pro-integrated education group) when it met Education Minister Lord Elton on 26 February 1981.

The interim Chilver report, in June 1980, called for a Belfast Centre for Teacher Education, which would include a Catholic college, Stranmillis College and Queen’s University’s School of Education on the Stranmillis site. According to the official note (file ED/13/2/544), Mr Mallaghan “suggested that the Roman Catholic Church had orchestrated a response to the report and that many people were not aware of what was in it.”

The Minister was sceptical about public demand as he had received “no such approaches” from members of the public. Lagan College was opened in September 1981 as the first formally integrated school, with 28 pupils. That said, several schools had educated Protestants and Catholics together earlier in Northern Ireland’s history e.g. the mill schools of County Down.

Hunger strike support assessed

The hunger strike had generated “substantial international interest, notably in the US, the Holy See and Western Europe” (file CENT/1/10/36A). The UK had “encountered no difficulties from allied governments over the hunger strike, although it remains to be seen whether President [Mitterrand] will succumb to left wing pressure in France.” Mitterrand’s government included ministers from the French Communist Party.

May was a turbulent time in Europe. Bobby Sands’ death (5 May) was followed by the assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II (13 May) which, the NIO surmised, “has probably had the indirect effect of reducing sympathy abroad for terrorist prisoners in Northern Ireland.” However, officials expected interest to revive when the European Commission of Human Rights (a legal tribunal) declared two complaints by prisoners to be admissible.

Some US television coverage had been “unhelpful” but there had been “some attempt at balance” in recent days. The southern Irish and French media were “notably hostile”.

The Taoiseach (at that time Charles Haughey) had urged the British Government to be “flexible on prison conditions” but was also “careful not to associate himself with the prisoners’ demands for political status.” The briefing warned that “Provisional Sinn Féin sympathisers” could take six seats in the Irish general election, which was held on 11 June. Two Anti H-Block candidates were subsequently elected (hunger striker Kieran Doherty and fellow prisoner Paddy Agnew). Haughey was unable to form a government and was succeeded by Garret FitzGerald. Doherty died on 2 August 1981.

In the USA, dockworkers announced a 24-hour boycott of British ships entering US ports on 7-8 May and Irish bars in New York were closed for two hours as a mark of respect (file NIO/12/194A). The East German Communists described Northern Ireland citizens as “suppressed and subject to discrimination”. Anti-British pickets and arson attacks were reported in several countries.

Progress is promised on reforming education and local government after long delays.

Apart from health and libraries, the last Assembly term was largely a missed opportunity for “Delivering High Quality and Efficient Public Services”. The draft Programme for Government’s reform plans, under that title, will be judged on whether education and local government are streamlined.

Social clauses are due to be the first achievement of reform, introduced in 2012-2013.

The most tangible benefit should be better access to life-enhancing drugs. Patients with rheumatoid arthritis, cancer, inflammatory bowel disease and psoriasis (a skin condition) are prioritised. DHSSPS officials have previously delayed their dispensing, citing financial reasons, resulting in more hardship for Northern Ireland patients.

Executive parties plan to agree the post-2015 structures of government in 2012 (as the UUP suggested) despite a previous commitment to review that by 2011. Major changes will also depend on amending the Northern Ireland Act 1998 at Westminster.

OFMDFM cannot confirm whether the public will be consulted. Members of the public, though, can lobby MLAs on the Assembly and Executive Review Committee at any stage.

Peter Hain’s seven-council model, unveiled in November 2005, was due to take shape in May 2009. Executive ministers compromised on 11 councils and rescheduled elections for May 2011, although plans fell apart over boundaries and costings. Under the new plan, those elections are expected in June 2014, with the new councillors taking office in May 2015.

The 11-council commitment was passed by the DUP, Sinn Féin and Alliance. The SDLP and UUP still aim for 15, claiming that these would be more local, mean less gerrymandering and save money. Eleven councils appear cheaper but would mean more severance payments for senior officials.

The education and skills authority (ESA) was also announced in November 2005, with an April 2008 deadline, and then put back to April 2009 by the new Executive. Its future became embroiled in the education dispute between Sinn Féin and the DUP, and fears that the main Protestant churches (transferors) would lose their influence.

Eight bodies will be merged into the new authority: the four education and library boards, their staff commission, the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS) and the Youth Council. The futures of the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment, and the Education and Training Inspectorate are still to be decided. Most other education bodies will see little change.

Its 20-member board will have eight seats for political representatives (allocated by d’Hondt), eight for the main churches and four filled by Education Minister appointees. The Chair will also be appointed by the Minister.

Sectoral support bodies will be set up for the controlled sector (a first) and Catholic maintained sector (replicating CCMS) to protect their ethos. Legislation is due to be completed by July 2012, with aim of setting up the ESA in April 2013.

An increase in online services will build on the NI Direct website and also ensure continuity as public sector jobs are cut. The DUP says that car tax renewal, all public sector job adverts and all benefit applications should be available online, and (along with the UUP) suggests a pilot for broadcasting court cases.

Ministers suggest action on ‘peace walls’ and shared education but language and the past are two major obstacles.

The Executive claims that “much progress has been made” in creating a shared and better future and it “remains as committed as ever” to achieving that. However, the first step of its “Building a Strong and Shared Community” chapter relies on three separate sports stadia projects, rather than the single one proposed under direct rule in 2006. The whole community can unite around the World Police and Fire Games in Belfast (1-10 August 2013) and plans for a major golf tournament in 2013-2014.

On dismantling interface barriers, the Executive will take action (starting in 2013-2014) if local communities agree to bring them down.

There are currently 59 interface barriers. David Ford’s preference is to invest funds into good relations work instead of extending walls. When asked how it would reduce paramilitary influence, the Department of Justice said that an ‘inter-agency’ group would deal with interface problems (with PSNI involvement).

Prison reform, a legacy of the peace process, should be “ready to launch” in 2012-2013 and swift action is demanded. Thirty-six of the 40 prison review recommendations are to be achieved by 2015. At present, 79.4 per cent of prison officers are from a Protestant background and 10 per cent from a Catholic background; the remaining 10.6 per cent are “undetermined”.

As expected, the Troubles are not mentioned. The Assembly has separately passed an Alliance proposal for cross-party talks on dealing with the past and the Secretary of State has written to party leaders to ask for their views on the way forward.

Irish language and Ulster Scots strategies, promised five years ago in the St Andrews Agreement, have been held up by DUP-Sinn Féin disagreements.

Culture Minister Carál Ní Chuilín said her officials were “working to determine the scope” of a draft Irish Language Bill, which unionists view as unnecessary. Ní Chuilín wants Irish to be protected in law (similarly to Scots Gaelic and Welsh) but concedes that promoting the language is “not simply about a piece of legislation”.

DCAL officials started a ‘scoping exercise’ last month, which is due to finish by 31 January 2012. A “suggested timetable for consultation and publication” will then be provided to the Minister.

The ministerial advisory group on shared education (due to report in 2012-2013) could encourage a more detailed and rational debate. Shared education programmes and facilities can bring pupils together for certain classes, but fall short of permanently shared schools.

In 2010-2011, 6.5 per cent of pupils (21,051) attended integrated sector schools. This figure increases to 10.5 per cent and 33,629 pupils when other forms of mixing (e.g. Catholic pupils in controlled schools) are included. Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey results over the last Assembly term indicated that 62-70 per cent of parents would prefer to send their children to a “mixed-religion” school.

Those plans should be underpinned by a cohesion, sharing and integration (CSI) strategy. OFMDFM admits that the June 2010 draft was seen as a “politically negotiated document” which did not reflect what most of society wanted.

agendaNi understands that the cross-party working group on CSI has been meeting weekly since September. However, the draft Programme for Government says that this would only be finalised in 2012-2013. The Community Relations Council is continuing with its work in the meantime.

Michael D Higgins has taken over from Mary McAleese as Irish President, while Irish citizens in Northern Ireland will not receive voting rights for the foreseeable future. Meadhbh Monahan reports.

Michael Daniel Higgins, the first intellectual and poet to reside at Áras an Uachtaráin, was elected Ireland’s ninth President on 27 October, receiving 701,101 first preference votes, which increased to 1,007,104 with transfers. This equated to a 39.6 per cent share of the total vote, well above Cavan entrepreneur Sean Gallagher’s 28.5 per cent.

Gallagher came second with 628,114 first preferences and Martin McGuinness came in third with 265,196 (13.7 per cent).

Sinn Féin had hoped for 18 to 20 per cent of first preferences, but McGuinness said he was pleased with the result and the party labelled it as positive. He had added to its historic general election result of 9.9 per cent, and beaten Fine Gael’s Gay Mitchell (who received an embarrassing 6.4 per cent). McGuinness, who was subject to intense media scrutiny about his IRA past, was glad he had “something to do” i.e. return to his post as deputy First Minister.

While Belfast-born Mary McAleese was criticised during her 1997 campaign for her Northern Ireland background, she held the presidency for two seven-year terms and has been praised for leaving a positive legacy which culminated in the visit of Queen Elizabeth II in May 2011.

A presidency of ideas has been promised, and in that vein, Higgins intends to host gatherings of the best minds from Ireland and abroad to take part in discussions on issues such as youth unemployment, emigration and mental health.

The new President, who was born in Limerick but raised by his aunt and uncle on a farm in County Clare, is described as “a thinker unafraid to speak his mind.”

He will mark the sensitive Easter Rising centenary in 2016.

Northern voting rights

Sinn Féin and the SDLP both want to extend presidential voting rights to the North, although unionists are opposed on sovereignty grounds.

A DUP spokesman told agendaNi: “[Our] view is that the union is secure, and Sinn Féin are now reduced to scrabbling around for issues to enhance their ‘Irishness’,” the spokesman stated. The party’s priority is “bringing society in Northern Ireland together and rebuilding our economy, not issues around voting rights in presidential elections in the Republic.”

A UUP spokesman told agendaNi: “We are part of a separate state: the United Kingdom.” He added: “The Dutch don’t vote in German elections, the Poles don’t elect the German President, the Spanish don’t elect the French President, so why should people in Northern Ireland, a part of the United Kingdom, be able to vote in an election in the Irish Republic?”

Alliance is “very cautious” as the move could have “unforeseen consequences” e.g. allowing for northern votes to Dáil Éireann as well.

A summary of energy policies advocated by the Assembly parties.

DUP
Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister: Arlene Foster MLA
Westminster Energy and Climate Change Spokesman: Jeffrey Donaldson MP
Assembly Enterprise, Trade and Investment Spokesman: Robin Newton MLA

The DUP’s 2010 Westminster manifesto supports the 40 per cent target of electricity from renewables, and states that farmers should be assisted in helping government meet this target without increasing the cost of electricity. It commits to expanding incentives for home energy efficiency measures, supporting a substantial increase in the winter fuel payment and establishing Northern Ireland as a global centre for the development of renewables and smart grid technology.

Its 2011 manifesto promises rate relief for businesses investing in energy efficiency, a strategic grid infrastructure development plan and further interconnection with the South and Great Britain. It promises to publish an Offshore Renewable Energy Strategy, a target of 10 per cent of heat consumed coming from renewables by 2020 and a simplified planning process for renewable technology. The DUP supports an extension of the gas network and a province-wide retrofit programme. To combat fuel poverty, it would implement a boiler scrappage scheme, and develop an energy assistance package.

In 2010 Arlene Foster published a Strategic Energy Framework 2010-2020. Her department has also published a draft Offshore Renewable Energy Strategic Action Plan and a Bio-energy Action Plan for 2010-2015. In June the Minister launched a public consultation on extending the natural gas network and her department is also considering a mandatory domestic energy supplier obligation. Common North/South retail market arrangements for gas are expected to be completed by October 2014.

Sinn Féin
Assembly Energy Spokesman: Phil Flanagan MLA
Dáil Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Spokesman: Martin Ferris TD
Seanad Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Spokesman: Trevor Ó Clochartaigh

Sinn Féin’s Westminster manifesto calls for a greater focus on low carbon, energy efficient, affordable housing, with similar high standards applying to all new build and public buildings. The potential of the renewable energy sector needs to be harnessed, and Sinn Féin rejects nuclear energy. Mechanical biological treatment (MBT) of waste and anaerobic digestion combined with combined heat and power (CHP) is the party’s preferred waste-to-energy solution, ruling out incineration. The second North/South interconnector should be built underground and energy infrastructure decentralised through renewables, within the context of an all-Ireland energy strategy.

This year’s Assembly manifesto states the party would establish targets and timetables for the reduction of fuel poverty, develop a long-term renewable energy strategy and provide adequate resources for the Green New Deal.

Commitments in its Dáil manifesto this year include the creation of a green technology firm to manage Ireland’s energy resources. It would provide and fund energy and cost €100 million, with the aim of making Ireland energy independent by 2020.

UUP
Enterprise, Trade and Investment Spokesman: Mike Nesbitt MLA

While the pact between the Ulster Unionist Party and the Conservatives is over, energy commitments in the 2010 joint manifesto remain. It commits to the promotion of low carbon energies such as nuclear, wind, clean coal and biogas. The joint manifesto promises spare capacity in the energy system, an ‘electricity internet’, work to make the Single Electricity Market (SEM) more competitive, the sharing of innovations in smart grid and smart meter technology, and the establishment of an emissions performance standard to limit greenhouse gases from power stations.

A gas storage facility off the coast of Northern Ireland is supported and it is committed to exploring how household energy bills can provide information on moving to the cheapest tariff offered by the supplier and how a customer’s energy usage compares to similar households.

In its Assembly manifesto, the UUP promises incentives to invest in energy saving technologies and says the planning system needed reform to prevent delays with renewable energy projects. It says it would focus on identifying and exploiting sources of renewable energy, including on the public sector estate.

Alliance
Assembly Enterprise, Trade and Investment Spokesman:  Trevor Lunn MLA

Alliance’s 2010 Westminster manifesto proposes incentives through the tax and rating system to encourage energy efficiency. The renewable obligation certificates system needs to be reviewed and a feed-in-tariff system considered. The party seeks further development of the single energy market on the island and development of the new North/South interconnector. It would also increase the winter fuel payment.

Alliance wants to increase investment in renewable energy and the grid and promote energy efficiency. Reducing energy could be achieved through the creation of business improvement districts. Fuel poverty is highlighted in its 2011 manifesto as a problem requiring targets in a Green New Deal and a review of the fuel poverty strategy.

The party seeks to cut fossil fuel use by 50 per cent over 1990-2020 and the introduction of a Marine Bill to coordinate marine management.

SDLP
Enterprise, Trade and Investment Spokesman:  Alasdair McDonnell MP MLA

The SDLP supports investment in the renewable energy sector and believes it can contribute to the rural economy. Its 2010 manifesto calls for an all-island energy regulator and the introduction of social tariffs on energy provision for older and disabled people.

A new ‘department of energy and sustainability’ should be created, the party believes, and its 2011 Assembly manifesto proposes the insulation of 100,000 homes, retrofitting of more Housing Executive homes, and all-island renewable energy and energy security strategies. It wants to see the scope for price regulation, to incentivise the grid to facilitate wind farm capacity, explored. The party supports a unified gas transmission network and a single gas market by 2015. A green jobs strategy is proposed. The party also wants an action plan to increase renewables in the transport network.

An Adoption (and Children) Bill is expected to be brought to the Assembly in 2013 aiming to speed up the process of placing children in care with a permanent family. It currently takes approximately three years and six months for a child to be adopted from care in Northern Ireland, while in England children wait an average of two years and seven months.

The Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order was passed in 1987 and is to be updated to recognise that it is no longer illegitimate babies, but often children from difficult or neglected backgrounds who need a home. An attempt to update the legislation failed in the last Assembly term.

agendaNi asked the DHSSPS why the new Bill will not be introduced for another year and it cited the primary legislation process which includes instructing counsel, ministerial clearance and public consultation.

Under direct rule, the 2006 ‘Adopting the Future’ draft strategy made 21 recommendations to improve adoption, including that unmarried and same sex couples be allowed to adopt. Of the 1,066 consultation responses, 1,025 (96 per cent) opposed same sex or unmarried couples adopting. Former Health Minister Michael McGimpsey took a previous Adoption and Children Bill (which didn’t contain that proposal) off the legislative table in October 2010. When asked why that Bill was delayed, considering the last Assembly’s four-year term, the department reiterated that the Bill hadn’t made it through clearance in time.

Unnecessary delays in care planning and court proceedings, a lack of adoptive families and poor post-adoption support have been identified as problems.

Potential adopters are made aware from the outset that there are very few new born babies available for adoption. Only two babies under one were adopted from April 2010 to April 2011. The average age of the children waiting to be placed is four years and eight months. They have generally been in and out of care and have suffered neglect or trauma.

When challenged on the low average adoption rate (2 per cent) a DHSSPS spokeswoman said that adoption is not the only option for children in care. She added that the department is currently considering special guardianship which is used in England and Wales; this gives legal parental responsibility to a guardian until a child is 18 but does not totally remove parental responsibility from the birth parent.

Barriers

Belfast’s Family Care Society Chief Officer Rosemary Hurl says more adopters are needed and that legislation must be “child centred”.

“The current process of freeing children for adoption can be a long and protracted one,” Hurl tells agendaNi. An average wait of 3½ years from entering care to being freed for adoption “is a huge amount of time for a young child” who needs stability.

Placement orders should be included in the Bill, Hurl proposes. This involves the court authorising a trust to place the child for adoption with prospective adopters (with or without consent from the birth parent). They replaced freeing orders in England and Wales in 2002.

Adoption practices across the five trusts must be standardised and adoption agencies need balanced information on the child. In addition, the trusts should have to adhere to a statutory timeframe, she suggested.

Stephen McVey, the Northern Ireland Development Manager of Adoption UK, adds: “While adoption is the last link in a child’s care plan and every effort must be made to try to return them to their birth parent, once a decision has been taken that adoption is in their best interest, then that should be done as quickly as possible.”

Post-adoption support is essential because adoptive children are likely to have behavioural problems stemming from their instable childhood. “A dedicated adoption budget would help because post-adoption services are practically non-existent or are piecemeal and dependant on where you live,” McVey contends.

Same sex and unmarried adoption has been allowed in the rest of the UK since the 2007 Equality Act but the average adoption rates have remained around 13 per cent for England, 3 per cent for Scotland and 4 per cent for Wales. The adoption rate in the Republic is lower, at around 1 per cent, with most families adopting from abroad.

It is unclear whether the new Bill will provide for unmarried and same sex adoption. However, it is unlikely that the DUP would support it (given its opposition in its 2007 Assembly manifesto).

The department will be bound by the outcome of a judicial review brought to the High Court by the Human Rights Commission, which is backed by a lesbian woman who wants her partner to be allowed to adopt her biological son.

DUP Health Spokesman Jim Wells said that it is difficult enough for married couples to adopt without “throwing the net wider” to include unmarried and same sex couples. He said many couples are put off by the “bureaucracy” and cited examples from his church of couples who have adopted Russian and Ecuadorian children.

However, Hurl and McVey point out that inter-country adoption incurs a cost and adopters must adhere to local legislation as well as that country’s relevant law.

Sinn Féin, the SDLP and Alliance support same sex and unmarried adoption. The SDLP wants an Adoption Bill to provide more support for post-adoption contact and look at the financial entitlements for adoptive and birth parents.

The UUP’s Health Spokesman, John McCallister, said the needs of the child must be paramount but regretted that reform will be delayed until the ongoing judicial challenge is resolved.

Placing children is “an onerous task for an adoption agency because it’s a choice for life,” but it does produce positive results, Rosemary Hurl reflects. Stephen McVey agrees: “When you speak to an adoptive family, they will tell you it has enriched their lives.”

Source: DHSSPS Community Information Branch

Europe’s economy will be left behind without a green recovery, according to Bairbre de Brún. Extra investment is needed in the environmental sector but her fellow MEPs want more corporation tax.

Climate change is a key interest for de Brún who is this month representing her GUE/NGL group at the UN climate change conference in Durban. GUE/NGL, which stands for the Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left, is the Parliament’s sixth largest group with 34 MEPs.

The aim at Durban is to get progress on a replacement for the Kyoto protocol, although the USA refuses to back Kyoto unless emerging economies agree to cuts. De Brún warns that specific targets and timetables for action are needed “to hold off the possibility of dramatic and catastrophic climate change.”

She demands that industrialised countries move towards a low carbon economy (which in practice pollutes less and emits fewer greenhouse gases) but also wants them to agree on how to finance and manage a ‘green climate fund’ to support developing countries. That fund would allow developing countries to cope with existing climate change and help them “develop their economies without going down the dirty path that we went down,” the MEP explains.

Asked for her level of optimism, de Brún accepts that this year’s conference will be “very challenging” because of the US elections, the economic crisis and the way that is used as an excuse for inaction. Against that argument, she points to the 2006 Stern report, which found that moving towards a more sustainable economy would create jobs.

“My only hope would be that if countries move away from the kind of stand-off that there is at the moment – ‘I won’t do if you won’t do’ – to an approach where they’re coming together to reach a common solution to a common problem,” she comments.

Strong climate targets and timetables must also be set by the European Union and the Assembly. Sinn Féin’s 2009 European manifesto called for a mandatory 20 per cent increase in energy efficiency by 2020. Its Assembly counterpart calls for a long-term renewable energy strategy for the North and “adequate resources” for the Green New Deal.

America and China are already pressing ahead with green stimulus packages (despite rejecting Kyoto) and Europe risks being left behind, especially as China invests in low carbon technologies.

“We have done some good work at home,” she comments, “but instead of continuing at that, we could end up moving too slowly, being afraid of investing in this because of the economic crisis, and then finding, when we decide to go that road, that we’re buying from China rather than exporting to China and the other growing economies in the world.”

It is put to her that the A5 upgrade (championed by Sinn Féin) would have increased carbon emissions. She responds by saying that the Executive needs to draw up an overall climate change strategy (backed up by investment) and then decide what projects will or will not go ahead.

The North West, she adds, has demanded road improvements for road safety but has also sought new rail development, which she would welcome. De Brún then talks of the need for sustainable transport and adds that the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute could help to develop this field.

Green investment has multiple ‘wins’ but energy efficiency stands out for her. Some areas of England have focused on investing in home insulation, which not only helps the construction industry and reduces carbon emissions but prevents premature deaths among older people.

De Brún’s other priorities include securing a Peace IV funding package, supporting the Basque and Palestinian causes, and CAP reform. She is holding a series of meetings with farming and environmental organisations, and introducing them to Commission officials and ministers: “I’ll be following it every step of the way, amending the legislation to ensure we get the best deal possible with win-win solutions for farmers and the environment.”

As Europe continues to struggle with its financial crisis, she describes the EU as “still fairly resilient” and predicts a way out if the union promotes job creation and economic growth, and allows member states to do the same.

“If it continues in the way it’s going, we’re not going to get out of the crisis because more austerity, further centralisation of decision-making is, in my view, just making the problem worse,” she observes. However, growth can help to detoxify the banking system” and tackle sovereign debt.

A proper stimulus package could then be constructed. In her opinion, a recovering EU can help to green and modernise the economy, putting it on a stronger position against its emerging competitors.

Sinn Féin has stated its support for lowering corporation tax in Northern Ireland but, in contrast, its European colleagues are arguing for the opposite.

In November, GUE/NGL President Lothar Bisky criticised the Commission for not considering “increased taxation for banks, large corporations and the wealthy.” Back in 2007, German left-wing MEP Sahra Wagenknecht described low corporate taxes as “ever more unfettered … wild capitalism” which only benefitted a minority in society.

A Sinn Féin spokeswoman told agendaNi that because GUE/NGL is confederal group, “different MEPs and different parties in the group take different positions on a range of issues.” The positions taken by the group “are not binding on the component parties or MEPs.”

Rising costs and interference mean the UK is better off outside the EU, according to Diane Dodds. The DUP MEP discusses Northern Ireland’s place in Europe and her priorities with Peter Cheney.

Diane Dodds is in the conflicting position of wanting the best financial deal for Northern Ireland in Europe and also wanting the UK to quit the EU, therefore cutting off those funds. However, she sees no such contradiction when the point is put to her.

As part of a net contributor, Northern Ireland must “get more back out of Europe than it currently does” and leaving the EU would ultimately mean getting back “all the millions and billions that we actually pay in.”

The UK’s net contribution was £9.2 billion in 2010-2011. Dodds recognises that Northern Ireland has benefitted from Europe, especially through CAP and the Peace funding, but her basic principle is sovereignty. “I don’t want people from 26 other different countries in Europe deciding what I can or cannot do with my money,” she states.

Food focus

Making the most of Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and Common Fisheries Policy reforms is Dodds’ main priority at present. Both policies directly affect lives in Northern Ireland and she sits on the relevant European Parliament committees.

£268 million has been paid out to date from DARD’s 2010 single farm payment budget.

Two battles stand out in CAP: the ongoing European talks and challenging the UK Government, which wants to move money from farmers’ support to environmental schemes. In Dodds’ view, CAP should be “a food policy not an environment policy” and she claims that many Conservative and Unionist pronouncements would not “sit easy” with farmers in Northern Ireland.

The phrase Conservative and Unionist, of course, harks back to the UCUNF pact. Jim Nicholson was the only successful candidate. The DUP is keen to connect the UUP with unpopular government policies. Later, Dodds pledges to hold the Conservatives and Unionists responsible if the UK Government fails to hold a referendum on treaty changes. And ultimately, she wants a referendum on the UK’s membership; the DUP has consistently called for the UK’s withdrawal.

Dodds predicts a growing demand for a poll: “No matter what Cameron said at the [Conservative Party] conference, the Government will be edged towards allowing people a free choice and because we are net contributors, because this place costs every citizen in the United Kingdom, then I believe that we need to have a say in where we’re going.”

The Daily Telegraph calculates that in 2010 each household made a net contribution of £299 towards EU funds. Her husband Nigel helped to present a 100,000-signature petition to Downing Street, separate from the e-petition which triggered the House of Commons vote.

“No country can live unto itself. We need to be able to trade with our European partners,” she explains. “What we don’t want is the federalism and the invasion and the intrusion into the minutiae of national life that these institutions represent.”

Calling referendums runs against the British parliamentary tradition, but she says that argument has “long since passed the post” as UK voters approved EU membership i.e. the 1975 referendum.

All EU institutions are “convulsed” by the debt crisis and the need to set priorities for the 2014-2020 budgeting cycle. Given the waste and bureaucracy in the EU, she supports a cut in the overall budget (currently projected at €1.03 trillion) and says that a smaller version could still fund CAP, the structural funds and the Cohesion Fund.

Foreign affairs

The European External Action Service is, to Dodds, a key example of waste. Launched last December, this is the EU’s new diplomatic arm but its Commissioner, Baroness Ashton, has been “given an impossible job, to try to form a coherent foreign policy for 27 nations”.

Ashton, for example, was unable to give a coherent response when MEPs debated Palestinian statehood in September. “Foreign policy is the prerogative of member states,” Dodds maintains. The service’s 2011 budget is €464 million.

Israel is a “long-held interest” of Dodds. She has no objection to giving aid to Palestinians but finds that the European Parliament “can sometimes be a lonely place for those who speak out in support of Israel.” Two EU-Israel trade agreements, on industrial and pharmaceutical products, were signed and approved by the Council of Ministers in May 2010 but have been held up in the Parliament. The delay, she explains, is holding back cutting edge research and potential medical treatments.

The MEP says that the “pejorative language” of occupied territories should be avoided, even though the term is broadly recognised: “If we go into a situation with pre-conceived views to tell people how to do things then we will never be able to work with those people.”

Instead, she focuses on building blocks for peace e.g. the inclusion of Arab-Israeli women in the workplace. Asked whether she is uncomfortable with the loss of British personnel in the Israeli War of Independence, Dodds responds: “We cannot keep going back and back. As a democratic politician, I want to see democracy flourish. Israel is a democracy in every modern sense of the word.” She adds: “I am a friend of Israel but not an uncritical friend of Israel.”

She rejects the idea of abstaining from the Parliament as her manifesto commits her to going to Brussels. Back home, her office has drawn up a funding guide for community groups and non-profit organisations. Her overall ambition is to end British EU membership. Norway, she stresses, enjoys free trade agreements outside the EU before lamenting on “the disadvantages of the working time directives, the social and employment legislation, and all of the red tape and hassle and money that this place involves.” To put it another way, Diane Dodds hopes the day will come when MEPs are no longer needed.

Jim Nicholson wants to promote a new narrative about Northern Ireland, with more businesses exploring European opportunities. Peter Cheney asks him about his current impressions of the EU.

Europeans still associate Northern Ireland with conflict but a single visit makes visitors want to come back. That’s what Jim Nicholson found when he organised a regional tour for the bureau of his European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group.

MEPs were “highly impressed” with Parliament Buildings despite the September rain, took a trip to the North Coast “and they really loved the scenery and they’ve all said they’re coming back.” Imagine the contrast in July when the Short Strand and Ardoyne riots made international headlines, making members question whether it was safe to go.

“So we have got to be aware,” he surmises. “Our image is still there and every time the people of Europe see bombing, rioting, cars burning, the old image comes back … We’re going to have to work, I think, for some time before we get rid of that image.”

As expected, Nicholson names agriculture and fisheries as his two main priorities. By 2014, he wants to see a less bureaucratic Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), producing good food and giving farmers a “fair living”.

Common Fisheries Policy reform must give “more local control” to fishermen. Current plans would let groups of member states decide how to implement policy but the Commission could still intervene if problems arise.

“Hopefully if we can get those two things done, then we will have done quite a good job,” he adds, before emphasising the need to “educate and encourage” Northern Ireland’s SMEs and entrepreneurs and opening doors for them in Europe.

As part of the ECR visit, Nicholson hosted a business breakfast to highlight European R&D funding and he wants to see more businesses coming over and finding new opportunities on the continent.

“If you’re going to get Northern Ireland working again,” Nicholson states, “I believe we do it through the development of our small and medium-sized enterprises because I believe they have the best potential.”

Rather than focusing on large inward investors, politicians need to work with local men and women who have ideas and “the determination to deliver”.

Influence

In keeping with his leadership campaign pledge, David Cameron took his MEPs out of the federalist European People’s Party (EPP) and formed the more sceptical ECR group in June 2009. The group is now the joint fourth largest in the Parliament (56 MEPs) but the EPP remains the largest with 264 MEPs.

Nicholson rejects the suggestion that this move puts Northern Ireland at a disadvantage: “I would put forward the view that I am in the strongest group in the Parliament. I am now in the group that’s the fourth largest group in the Parliament. I am now in the group that is actually growing and not getting smaller.”

The ECR gained two MEPs through defections this year and he expects it to take two committee chairs when the Parliament reaches its half-way point in January.

In a larger group, Nicholson would “never” have been appointed as a co-ordinator on the Agriculture Committee, where he leads on the CAP’s dairy package, and could have lost his full committee membership. He contrasts his position with Diane Dodds who, he claims, has “no influence at all” as a non-inscrit and Bairbre de Brún’s “communist-orientated” group (GUE/NGL has 34 members).

His main reflection on the continent’s fiscal turmoil is that Europe “has always done too little, too late to actually stop the crisis continuing.” Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy had just claimed to “have solved the problem again” at a weekend summit before Franco-Belgian bank Dexia was bailed out by governments.

Nicholson credits Gordon Brown (a rare tribute) with keeping sterling but stresses that the euro crisis’ local impact cannot be ignored: “The fact that we are outside of the euro zone gives us some degree of comfort but I give the warning that if the euro zone goes into meltdown, don’t expect that we will not be affected by it. We live in a globalised world now. All currencies are going to be affected by any kind of meltdown.”

The Republic and other smaller euro members have handed their financial sovereignty to Germany and France, he remarks, and Nicholson hopes those two countries can bring Europe back to more stable growth.

Need for debate

As for the UK’s own membership, Nicholson is “quite happy to have a referendum” but also wants a real debate to “clear the air” on the pros and cons of the European Union. He also expects a poll on any new treaty.

Turning on the eurosceptics, he asks: “Are they certain if they were out of Europe tomorrow morning, that there would be the same money going into agriculture, same money going into rural development, same money going into many of the other areas?”

The UK’s net contribution was £9.2 billion in 2010-2011 but Nicholson predicts that Westminster would have different spending priorities from the European Commission: “Does anybody in Northern Ireland believe that any United Kingdom Government are going to give the support to our agricultural industry that’s presently coming?”

Serious questions have to be asked about how withdrawal would affect Northern Ireland’s trade with the rest of the EU (accounting for 49 per cent of manufacturing exports) and the UK’s international position.

“I think the people of the United Kingdom have got to ask themselves one real question: ‘Do you really want to be part of Europe or not?’ If you don’t, then get out. If you do, then take a leading role in moulding it into what you want it to be.”

British ambivalence towards Europe means that that Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy now drive European policy, he explains.

While stronger than the euro, sterling is weaker than the dollar and, in his view, has survived because of the Coalition Government’s fiscal policies.

Commonwealth countries, which accounted for much of the UK’s pre-1973 trade, have now switched to the Far East. Ultimately, he thinks that the alternative is nostalgic: “The world has changed from that time we went in. You just simply can’t rewind the clock and go back to some kind of utopia.”