Down to Business

The most important thing to came out of yesterday's OFMDFM committee meeting may have been the blossoming personal relationship between the the First and Deputy First Ministers, but that doesn't mean a thing if results don't come from it.
Recognising this, Martin McGuinness likes to refer to it as a 'work-in, not a love-in, so let's take a quick look at the substance of what they hope to deliver with their programme for government - well as far as we can from yesterday's meeting.

The programme will run until 2011 but there were warnings that it will not all be smooth sailing as Ian Paisley said that there were indications that the comprehensive spending review would result in a "much tighter settlement" which would require the Executive to take "difficult decisions" and that it would not be possible to finance everything.
Mr Paisley also said that he has spoken to both the out-going and incoming British PMs about the proposed peace dividend. "They can't keep us hanging on a string," said Mr Paisley "we have got to know what we are going to have and how we are going to have it."

The programme for government will be reviewed annually and will, according to Ian Paisley, take a "fundamentally different approach to that of previous exercises" by direct rule ministers.

Mr Paisley identified five emerging priorities for government, but they were so broad as to be almost meaningless:

1. Growing to a dynamic innovative economy
2. Building a stable and just society
3. Investing to rebuild infrastructure
4. Delivering modern high quality public services
5. Protecting the environment

Mr McGuinness said they aimed to "equal and shared society for all" which meant targeting such issues as poverty and social exclusion.

He also broached the subject of the Victims commissioner saying, "In looking to the future we cannot ignore that we are emerging from conflict - we wish to give high priority to matters affecting victims and survivors" and that they would make an appointment before recess (which is July 7).

Also in terms of dealing with victims of the conflict Mr Paisley was somewhat ambiguous saying:
"These are matters which need to be faced, and faced honestly... There are certain things that we do have to leave aside because they have been looked at and nobody is going to be satisfied at the end of the day with the findings."

Mr McGuinness said that the victims issue has been one of the "out-standing failures of the process from as far back as 1998, and it has been a collective failure."
However he said that there are some indications that there may be some developments from the British government on how to deal with resolving it, which he awaits with interest as it sits outside the remit of OFMDFM.

In terms of suicide, Martin McGuinness stressed that since it required many different departments working together in "a joined-up approach". It was noticeable he didn't mention addressing it on an all-Ireland basis, which Gerry Adams favours.

Unionists are concerned with raising the profile of the East-West relationships but Ian Paisley said that there is no point having a British Irish Council meeting until Gordon Brown takes up his position as PM, "We must have the Prime Minister there - this is an important body!"
It clearly hasn't been an important body in the past but maybe it will be in the future.
However Mr Paisley re-iterated that the North would be working closely with the other Assemblies saying, "Westminster will not be happy because three devolved governments all coming together with one unifying note is going to be very hard to reject.

So there you have it, and now you can tick off their to-do list over the course of the next few years.