Assembly Committees take their work to the City of Culture

Six Northern Ireland Assembly Committees will be holding their meetings in the City of Culture on Wednesday, 12 June. The Committees will be meeting in a variety of venues, including the Magee campus of the University of Ulster, the new Ebrington Barracks venue and the North West Regional College.

Speaker of the Assembly, Mr William Hay MLA said: "Assembly Committees often take their work outside of Parliament Buildings. However, this is the first time that so many Committees have gone to one place at the same time.

"As a Foyle MLA I am obviously keen to see the Assembly business come to my city as it celebrates being the UK City of Culture--but bringing the work of the Assembly to as many local communities is one of our deeply held corporate goals.

"The Assembly is committed to ensuring that as many people as possible have an opportunity to take part in the political process, to influence the work that we do and to see politics at work. Bringing nearly half the Assembly Committees to the North West demonstrates how serious we are in pursuing this goal."

The six Committees visiting the City of Culture are: Health; Employment and Learning; the Committee for the Office of the First Minister/deputy First Minister (COFMDFM); Finance and Personnel; Public Accounts; and Education.

The Health Committee will be visiting the Foyle Hospice in the morning, going to the Magee campus for their meeting, which begins at 2pm. The meeting will focus on taking evidence from Cancer Focus and the Chest, Heart and Stroke Association on the Tobacco Retailers Bill as well as on Transforming Your Care. After the Committee meeting MLAs will meet informally with researchers at the Bamford Centre for Mental Health and Wellbing.

The Employment and Learning Committee will meet at the Magee campus at 10am and will receive a briefing on the Derry City Council Employment Programme.

COFMDFM will hold its 2pm meeting in the Ballroom at Ebrington Barracks and will be briefed by Ilex Urban Regeneration Company on its work as well as by the officials from the Department on the progress of the Programme for Government in relation to the One Plan for L/Derry and on the regeneration of the former military sites of Ebrington and Shackelton.

The Finance and Personnel Committee will be formally considering their Committee Report on the Legislative Consent Motion: Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill as well as taking evidence from the Department and Special EU Programmes Body on issues including the evaluation of Peace III and proposals in respect of EU funding for 2014-2020.

The Public Accounts Committee will meet at 2pm in the North West Regional College where they will be discussing their Inquiry into Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.

The Education Committee will hold its meeting at 10.30am in the Ballroom at Ebrington Barracks and will be briefed by Foyle Learning Community and Foyle College. The topic considered during both briefings will be shared education practices.