Transport:The road to reform
Friday, July 9th, 2010agendaNi unpacks the plans for a new public transport agency to oversee the province’s sector. Chief among the new recommendations for reform is that a new public transport agency should be set up, reporting to the DRD. Consultation took place between November 2009 and February this year and a Bill was introduced into the Assembly on 21 June to legally provide for the new proposals. The new agency will be charged with forming the overall strategy and will also act as a watchdog by regulating the system through public transport contracts. According to the DRD, the agency is essential...[full story]
Europe:What should Europe be
Friday, July 9th, 2010Coolness and enthusiasm about the EU and its future can be sensed across the local political spectrum, as parties put forward their views on the purpose of the union. Alliance: Peace, stability and prosperity The main functions of the European Union are to provide peace and stability, to maximise prosperity of the region and to ensure that issues of mutual benefit and concern within Europe can be effectively addressed. The European Union was established after countries could see the benefits of co- operation following the end of the Second World War. Countries realised that working together...[full story]
Europe:Europe’s accountability
Friday, July 9th, 2010An overview of how the EU’s different parts are appointed, and their links back to the union’s states and people. Commission President: José Manuel Barroso (Portugal) UK commissioner: Baroness Catherine Ashton (foreign affairs) Irish commissioner: Máire Geoghegan-Quinn (research, innovation and science) The 27 commissioners are unelected, with each one nominated by a member state government. Once established, the Commission is independent of the governments and tasked with protecting the interests of the EU as whole. Its power rests in its ability to propose legislation, something...[full story]
Public Affairs:Devolution plus?
Friday, June 4th, 2010After the justice transfer, agendaNi sums up the parties’ hopes to give Stormont more authority. With criminal justice powers in the Assembly’s hands, several MLAs say it’s now time for Westminster to go further and hand over more power to Stormont. agendaNi has asked all the Assembly parties for any ‘shopping lists’ for extra powers or, if they were content with the status quo, why that was so. Current dividing lines between London and Belfast are outlined on page 93. The two top priorities were the level of our taxes and, rather surprisingly, control over the planes that...[full story]
Assembly:A house divided
Friday, June 4th, 2010Peter Cheney looks at what a formal opposition could mean for the Assembly and the Executive’s accountability. Any change in system will depend on more trust between the parties. Official oppositions are common in Westminster-style systems of government, providing an ‘alternative government’ for the public to elect. Introducing this model to Stormont would prove a major departure but some commentators see it as a better way to hold the Executive to account. Prime Minister’s questions in the Commons is the model’s best known illustration. Twenty days are set aside for opposition...[full story]
Local Government:Sharing power locally
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010Power-sharing or the lack of it becomes contentious in areas where one community is a small minority. Nationalists have claimed they have been excluded from posts on Lisburn City Council while unionist councillors have said the same about Newry and Mourne District Council’s main jobs. There are unionist majorities in 13 councils and nationalist majorities in 11. In two councils – Belfast and Armagh – neither community has overall ‘control’. Research by agendaNi has found that 12 councils use the d’Hondt system i.e. Belfast, Armagh and all nationalist-held councils except...[full story]
Local Government:Southern local cuts
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010With 29 county councils, 75 town councils, five city councils, eight borough councils, eight regional authorities and two regional assemblies within its local government administration, the Irish Government has largely accepted that it must be downsized in order to save money. The Special Group on Public Service Numbers and Expenditure (An Bord Snip) initially speculated that cuts of €5.3 billion were required in the Republic’s public sector. Its recommendations for local government cuts included reducing the number of county and city councils from 34 to 22. However, when the Irish...[full story]
Local Government:Reform and deadlock
Wednesday, June 2nd, 2010With reports that the new 11 councils will be postponed to 2015, as agendaNi went to press, local government reform appears to have gone full circle since its beginnings eight years ago. Next May’s elections look set to be held using the existing 26 authorities. Northern Ireland’s councils have been very much the poor relation of central government since the early 1970s when housing, schools, roads and water were brought under regional control. An introduction to the Review of Public Administration, published in October 2003, reported that central government was reluctant to give...[full story]
