Minutes of Proceedings

The meeting opened in public session at 10.42am.

1. Apologies

The apologies are noted above.

2. Draft Minutes of Meetings Held on 6 December 2011 and 8 December 2011.

The Committee agreed the minutes of 6 December 2011 and 8 December 2011.

3. Matters Arising

The Committee noted the Minister's response to the Committee's queries on the PEDU report on Benchmarking of Retained Corporate Functions across NI Departments.

The Committee noted Sport NI's response to the Committee's follow-up queries on the Award for Sport programme.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to forward the response from Sport NI on the dual use of schools to the Committee for Education.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to write to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to ascertain the rationale behind the qualifying criteria for concessionary TV Licences and to ask whether there are any plans to address the apparent anomalies in the legislation; and to forward TV Licensing's response to Oaklee Housing Association and inform them of the Committee's further action on this matter.

4. Briefing from Arts Council on the Intercultural Arts Strategy

The following officials joined the meeting at 10.45am:

Chief Executive, Ms Roisín McDonough; and
Director of Strategic Development, Mr Nick Livingston.

The officials briefed the Committee.

A question and answer session followed.

Mr Michael McGimspey joined the meeting at 10.55am.

Mrs Brenda Hale left the meeting at 10.57am.

Mrs Brenda Hale rejoined the meeting at 11.05am.

Mrs Brenda Hale left the meeting at 11.13am.

The officials left the meeting at 11.23am.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to write to the Arts Council of Northern Ireland expressing its support for the Re-imaging Communities Programme and to ask for further updates in relation to the Programme as it progresses.

5. Briefing from Assembly Research and Information Service on Archaeological Archives in Northern Ireland

Dr Dan Hull joined the meeting at 11.25am and briefed the Committee.

A question and answer session followed.

Mr David Hilditch left the meeting at 11.30am.

Mr David Hilditch rejoined the meeting at 11.40am.

Dr Dan Hull left the meeting at 11.49am.

6. Briefing from the Northern Ireland Archaeological Forum
The following officials joined the meeting at 11.49am:
Chairperson of the NI Archaeological Forum, Mr Malachy Conway;
Director of Institute of Field Archaeologists, Mr Peter Hinton; and
Fieldwork Director at Queen's University, Mr Philip MacDonald.

The officials briefed the Committee.

Mr Cathal Ó hOisín left the meeting at 11.56am.

A question and answer session followed.

The officials left the meeting at 12.28pm.

Agreed: The Committee agreed: to write to the Committee for the Environment and to the Minister of the Environment regarding the issues on storage and curation of archaeological archives in Northern Ireland and to forward copies of Dr Hull's research paper and the NI Archaeological Forum paper to both; and to consider tabling a Committee Motion on this matter in early 2012 when more information about the issues is available to the Committee.

Mr Michael McGimpsey left the meeting at 12.29pm.

7. Committee Response to BBC Trust Consultation "Delivering Quality First"

Agreed: The Committee agreed the draft response to BBC Trust's consultation Delivering Quality First.

Mr William Irwin left the meeting at 12.31pm.

8. Correspondence

The Committee noted the correspondence from the OFMDFM Committee on the Programme for Government.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to request a briefing from the Department on DETI's Economic Strategy and Action Plan at the meeting on 19 January when the draft Programme for Government is being discussed.

9. Chairperson's Business

Agreed: The Committee agreed to schedule a short briefing from the Newry – Portadown branch of the Inland Waterways Association of Ireland on 19 January 2012.

The Committee noted that the Joint Committee on Environment, Transport, Culture, and the Gaeltacht of the Oireachtas has requested an informal meeting with the Members of the CAL Committee to discuss matters of mutual interest on Thursday 26 January 2012 at approx. 4.30pm.

Agreed: The Committee agreed to issue a press release on Wednesday 21 December 2011 following Libraries NI's decision on its review of library opening hours.

10. Forward Work Programme

Agreed: The Committee agreed the draft Forward Work Programme for January to March 2012.

11. Any other business

There was no other business.

12. Date and Time of Next Meeting

The next meeting of the Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure will take place on Thursday 12 January 2012 at 10.30am in Room 21, Parliament Buildings.

The Chairperson adjourned the meeting at 12.33pm

Miss Michelle McIlveen MLA
Chairperson, Committee for Culture, Arts and Leisure
12 January 2012