Minutes of Proceedings

The meeting began at 10.33 am in public session.

1. Apologies

Apologies are detailed above.

2. Minutes of meeting held on 26 May 2011

Agreed: The draft minutes of the meeting on the 26 May were agreed.

Stephen Agnew joined the meeting at 10.34am.

3. Chairperson’s Business

Members noted an invitation to the Chair and Deputy Chair to the OFMDFM Committee’s EU Discussion Forum on Monday 20 June in the Long Gallery.

Members noted a letter to the Chair from the Big Lottery Fund.

Members noted a letter to the Chair from Aware NI regarding Depression Awareness Week.

4. Matters Arising

Members noted the First Report from the Examiner of Statutory Rules which reported on SRs Nos 142, 143 and 155 – the Statutory Rules that were considered at last week’s meeting.

Agreed: Content with the Examiner’s comments and content with the SRs.

Members noted NIE’s availability for an oral briefing at a future meeting.

Agreed: To invite NIE to provide an oral briefing at the meeting on 16 June.

5. DETI Key Issues: Draft Economic Strategy, IREP, Corporation Tax and DETI Organisational Review

DETI officials joined the meeting at 10.40am.

Members received an oral briefing from: David Sterling, Permanent Secretary, DETI; David Thomson, Deputy Secretary, DETI and Graeme Hutchinson, Head of Economic Policy, DETI. Key issues discussed included the Draft Economic Strategy, the Independent Review of Economic Policy (IREP), Corporation Tax and DETI Organisational Review.

Alasdair McDonnell joined the meeting at 11.22am.

Agreed: To receive information on how long it would take for NI to recover the “real money” (from the loss of cutting corporation tax and loss from the block grant) to a point of breaking even.

Agreed: To receive a copy of the paper on Air Passenger Duty that was sent to DFP.

DETI officials left the meeting at 11.47am.
Mike Nesbitt left the meeting at 11.47am.
Sue Ramsey left the meeting at 11.47am.

Agreed: To receive a briefing from Assembly Research regarding the research paper on corporation tax at next week’s meeting.

Agreed: To consider the Treasury’s consultation paper on Rebalancing the NI Economy at next week’s meeting.

Mike Nesbitt returned to the meeting at 11.49am.

Agreed: To request that the Department facilitate an oral briefing for the Committee for Finance and Personnel at its meeting on either the 8 th or 15 th of June. 

6. Air Passenger Duty

Consumer Council officials joined the meeting at 11.53am.

Members received an oral briefing from Aodhan O’Donnell, Director of Policy, Consumer Council and Scott Kennerley, Head of Transport, Consumer Council. Key issues discussed included Air Passenger Duty and the NIE pension fund.

Consumer Council officials left the meeting at 12.35pm.

7. June Monitoring Round 2011

Members noted the written briefing.

Agreed: To receive details of substantive reduced requirements from the Department on an on-going basis as and when they inform DFP.

Agreed: To receive papers for future monitoring rounds on the Monday prior to the meeting at which they will be considered rather than having to adhere to the 5-day requirement agreed in the Executive’s Departmental Guidance on Assembly Committees – with assurances from the Department that they will adhere to this deadline.

8. Correspondence

 Members noted the following items of correspondence:

(i) A letter from Raymond McCartney MLA and Martina Anderson MLA to the Northern Ireland Tourist Board and a news article regarding funding for the Foyle Cup.

Agreed: To receive information on the funding for the Foyle and Milk Cup: what the criteria is for receiving funding; how the Foyle Cup did not meet the criteria and what will be done to ensure that they get help to get funding.   

(ii) A letter from the Department on Screening for Equality Impact Assessment.

9. Any other business

Members discussed a recently announced contract by Bombardier for the new CSeries single-aisle aircraft.

Agreed: To write to Bombardier to congratulate them on securing the contract.

Members discussed the potential changes to the UK Feed in Tariff (FIT).

Agreed: To receive an update from the Department on the possible reform of FITs and Electricity Market Reform (EMR).

Members discussed a possible visit/meeting to InterTradeIreland.

Agreed: To contact InterTradeIreland regarding a future visit/meeting.

10. Date, time and place of next meeting

The next meeting of the Committee will take place on Thursday 9 June at 10.30am, SONI Headquarters, 12 Manse Road, Belfast.

The Chair adjourned the meeting at 12.50pm.

Mr Alban Maginness
Chair
Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment
9 June 2011