Civic Forum

As all the excitement today was over in Westminster with Blair handing the keys ovver to Brown there was little for the two journalists left remaining in Stormont to get stuck into. The one morsel of substance we had been promised on today's agendas, was a debate by the committee of the OFMDFM on the terms of reference for the review of the Civic Forum.
The Forum has come in for ridicule from the DUP just this week with Stephen Moutray describing it during OFMDFM Question Time as an “utter waste of time, money and resources."

The SDLP however believe it could flourish given that the Assembly will offer stability over the next four years. Alban Maginness was peterbed by Martin McGuinness' failure, as he sees it, to confirm it did have a future during Question Time and instead focus on the forth-coming review. Alban suspects that the Forum may have been sacrificed by the republicans in seeking a deal with the DUP on devolution.

However the debate was snatched from us as the draft terms of reference have not been completed by OFMDFM for the Committee to peruse and now they will not get their hands on it until the end of the summer recess.
It may however mean that Sinn Féin are kicking up a fight on behalf of the Forum if the draft is behind schedule. Possibly with this in mind, SDLP's Dolores Kelly today asked the committee chair to seek a reason for the delay: "Is the hold-up a lack of agreement or is it more to do with the pressure of workload?"
We'll have to wait at least until September to find out.