AQO 1744/09

Mrs Naomi Long
Alliance Party
East Belfast

Tabled Date: 06/01/2009
Answered On Date: 12/01/2009
Priority Written: No

Question:
To ask the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister for its assessment of the timescale required to catch up on work not progressed during the suspension of Executive meetings.

Answer:

Since meetings resumed on 20 November, the Executive has met five times, and once in sub-group format. It has agreed 41 papers dealing with a broad range of issues across all aspects of Government. These bald statistics alone cannot, of course, convey the significant effort which the Ministers of the Executive, both inside and outside its meetings, devoted during this time to preparing its response to the economic downturn, as presented to the Assembly on 15 December.

We must, also, re-emphasise the point made to the Member in our answer to her question of 8 December. Executive business is a continuous process of consultation and agreement on draft papers circulated by individual Ministers. There will, therefore, always be draft papers at various stages of consideration and awaiting inclusion on the agenda of future Executive meetings.

The length of that consideration is not determined solely by the frequency of Executive meetings, but also by the time needed by Ministers to consider the often complex and sensitive issues and proposals being put forward, before they can be referred to the Executive for its formal agreement.

The Executive will meet again on 15 January and a schedule of future meetings has been agreed. We are now in a position where all agreed papers can proceed routinely to the next appropriate meeting.