Official Report (Hansard)

Local Government (Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill

PDF version of this report (48.53 kb)

COMMITTEE FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

OFFICIAL REPORT
(Hansard)

Local Government (Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill

24 June 2010

Members present for all or part of the proceedings:

Mr Cathal Boylan (Chairperson) 
Mr Patsy McGlone (Deputy Chairperson) 
Mr Roy Beggs 
Mr John Dallat 
Mr Danny Kinahan 
Mr Ian McCrea 
Mr Alastair Ross 
Mr Peter Weir 
Mr Brian Wilson 

The Chairperson (Mr Boylan):

We will now discuss the Committee’s draft report on the Local Government Disqualification (Amendment) Bill. Members have been provided with a copy, and we will go through each section and agree it. We will go through the draft report page by page. Are members content with the executive summary?

Members indicated assent.

Mr Ross:

On the section titled “Membership and Powers”, my name is spelt correctly in the membership list but wrongly in the footnotes.

Mr Weir:

You have a dual mandate.

The Chairperson:

We will rectify that, Mr Ross. Mr Wilson used to call me Mr Bowlan.

Are members content with the draft report’s recommendations?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson;

Are members content with the introduction?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with the section on consideration of the Bill by the Committee?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with the key issues outlined in the draft report?

Mr Beggs:

I have an issue with the paragraph titled “Timing of Implementation”. It contains a very complex sentence, which states:

“Members also recognised that to enable councils to provide satisfactorily for co-options a mechanism which would not affect political balance at Annual General Meetings would be required.”

That sentence has a complex structure. It would read easier if it stated that members also recognised that a mechanism to enable councils to provide satisfactorily for the —

I suppose that the councils would not provide for the — I have got it wrong. The councils are not doing the co-opting, yet the draft report states:

“Members also recognised that to enable councils to provide satisfactorily for co-options” .

Therefore, councils are not providing for the co-opting.

The Chairperson:

Let us take a minute to get this right.

Mr Kinahan:

Councils must provide a satisfactory mechanism for co-option.

Mr Beggs:

Let us take the councils out of it. It is not the councils that will be doing the co-opting.

The Chairperson:

OK, gentlemen, let us get one recording only for Hansard. Mr Beggs, you actually raised this matter.

Mr Beggs:

Yes, because it does not make sense at present.

The Chairperson:

Let us clarify it now, because we want to get the draft report agreed.

Mr Beggs:

The sense of what we agreed was:

“Members also recognised that a mechanism to provide co-options was required that would not affect political balance at Annual General Meetings.”

The Chairperson:

The Committee Clerk will read out the amended wording.

The Committee Clerk:

The draft report will be amended to state:

“Members also recognised that a mechanism to provide co-options was required that would not affect political balance at Annual General Meetings.”

The Chairperson:

Are members content with the key issues?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with the section on clause-by-clause consideration of the Bill?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with appendix 1, which contains the minutes of proceedings?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with appendix 2, which contains the minutes of evidence?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with appendix 3, which contains the written submissions?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with appendix 4, which contains the list of witnesses?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with appendix 5, which contains the research papers that the Committee requested? We thank the Assembly Research and Library Service for its research.

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content with appendix 6, which contains the other papers submitted to the Committee?

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

Are members content for the report to contain the relevant extracts from the minutes of proceedings of today’s meeting, as well as the minutes of evidence? Members will be agreeing to their inclusion in the report without having prior sight of them.

Members indicated assent.

The Chairperson:

I inform members that the report will be now ordered to be printed and submitted to the Business Office as the Committee’s official report on the Local Government (Disqualification) (Amendment) Bill. That is the end of the Bill’s Committee Stage.