Proceedings of the Committee on the Preparation for Government

2 August 2006

Minutes of the meeting held on Wednesday, 2 August 2006 in Room 144, Parliament Buildings.

In the Chair: Jim Wells

Present: Alex Attwood
Wilson Clyde
Fred Cobain
David Ford
Arlene Foster
Dolores Kelly
Naomi Long
Raymond McCartney
Alan McFarland
Conor Murphy MP
Peter Weir

In Attendance: Debbie Pritchard (Principal Clerk)
Martin Wilson (Principal Clerk)
Jim Beatty (Assistant Clerk)
Pauline Innes (Clerical Officer)

Observing: Ciaran Kearney (Sinn Fein researcher)
Philip Weir (DUP researcher)

The meeting commenced at 10.06am.

1. Apologies

Mr Durkan MP (Mr Attwood attended the meeting as SDLP representative in place of Mr Durkin MP)

Dr Farren

Ms Gildernew MP

Mr Kennedy

Dr McCrea MP (Mr Weir attended the meeting as DUP representative in place of Dr McCrea MP)

Dr McDonnell MP (Ms Kelly attended the meeting as SDLP representative in place of Dr McDonnell MP)

Mr McGuinness MP (Mr McCartney attended the meeting as Sinn Fein representative in place of Mr McGuinness MP)

Mr McNarry (Mr Cobain attended the meeting as UUPAG representative in place of Mr McNarry)

Lord Morrow (Ms Foster attended the meeting as DUP representative in place of Lord Morrow)

Mr Paisley (Mr Clyde attended the meeting as DUP representative in place of Mr Paisley)

2. Declaration of Interests

Members declared the following interests:-

• Alex Attwood – member of Policing Board
• Fred Cobain – member of Policing Board
• David Ford – member District Policing Partnership
• Arlene Foster – member Policing Board
• Dolores Kelly – member Policing Board
• Naomi Long – member District Policing Partnership
• Peter Weir – member Policing Board

3. Paper on Issues agreed by Committee

Each party gave a short presentation on law and order issues and answered questions from the other parties.

Ms Long joined the meeting at 10.34am.

Mr Weir joined the meeting at 10.46am.

It was agreed to add ‘Policing Ombudsman’ and ‘residual justice issues’ to the list of issues to be discussed.

It was agreed to retain ‘Rule of Law’ as a heading for discussion.

It was agreed to group the issues as follows:-

1. Devolution of Policing and Justice

2. Policing

• Intelligence Services
• Policing Issues
• Police Ombudsman

3. Justice Issues

• Community Restorative Justice
• Residual justice issues

4. Rule of Law

• Criminality
• Decommissioning
• Paramilitarism

The revised list will be sent to Members.

It was agreed that this was the order in which these would be included in the Committee’s work programme.

It was agreed that the Clerk should produce a briefing paper on the NIO discussion paper on Devolving Policing and Justice in Northern Ireland.

It was agreed to invite the Secretary of State, when available, to the Committee to discuss law and order issues.

4. Sub-group on Economic Challenges facing Northern Ireland

It was agreed to include those nominated by the Alliance Party and the UUPAG as additional Chairpersons on the list to chair meetings of the sub-group.

The Committee agreed to a request from the sub-group for a one week extension to 25 August 2006 as the date for reporting.

5. Next Meeting

The Committee will next meet at 10.00am on Friday 4 August 2006 in Room 144, Parliament Buildings to discuss issues relating to rights, equality, safeguards and victims.

It was agreed that the meeting on Wednesday 9 August 2006 to discuss the devolution of policing and justice should be an all-day meeting with lunch provided.

The meeting adjourned at 12.07pm.