A Dummy's Guide to Question Time

So the first question time for the First Minister last Monday was a bit of a disappointment, with the time available for quizzing limited to a mere half an hour, and then there was then the debacle over Ian Paisley's failure to come even close to answering Tommy Burns' question about the role of junior Ministers and how he felt about his son's expressed position on the matter.

However MLAs will have another chance to pin the OFMDFM about whatever's on their mind again in a fortnight (June 25th). If you are new to this game, the way it works is this:

Question time occurs every two weeks and is rotated between the First and Deputy First Minister, so you'll only see Ian and Martin fending off tricky questions once a month.

If the Assembly's gaggle of MLAs were able to ask every question on their mind each Question Time would last longer than the Saville Inquiry, so only a chosen few are permitted to ask questions. They decide who gets to pose a question by lottery.

Gregory Campbell's name was pulled out of the hat first this week and he had the privilege of asking Ian Paisley the opening question on Monday. No-one realised how much of a privilege it was however until the First Minister (probably going a little over board) congratulated his party colleague for winning the right to ask a simple question saying, "Today is an historic day for him and me."

To save time the MLA doesn't bother asking the question, instead s/he simply says the number from the list, but politicians inevitably take an age to answer even the most straight forward of questions which renders the savings of the few seconds it would have taken to ask the question meaningless.

However the question is simply a way to broach the subject matter. The MLA will then generally launch a hostile attack through a supplimentary question, of which the Minister will not be notified.

Anyway since the questions have to be submitted well in advance, which means we have a sneak preview of the questions Martin McGuinness will have to field at the next session. Twenty questions are submitted for oral answer but they will never get through them all. MLAs' scheduled questions not answered in the chamber receive a written response.

Its a mixed bag but the following dozen questions will give you a flavour of what's coming up:

1. Anna Lo: To ask the OFMDFM what proposals it has to increase the number of young people appointed to the public bodies within its remit.

2. Thomas Burns: To ask the OFMDFM when the interim Programme for Government will be published.

3. Sue Ramsey: To ask the OFMDFM to outline what steps junior Ministers have taken to prioritise the cross-cutting issues of children and young people, and older people, since their appointment.

4. Barry McElduff: To ask the OFMDFM if Ministers will visit the Community House in Omagh

5. David Ford: To ask the OFMDFM what statistical basis will be used to measure progress towards the eradication of child poverty.

6. Mervyn Storey: To ask the OFMDFM what legal restrictions are placed upon their office.

7. Willie Clarke: To ask the OFMDFM to provide an update on the recommendations of the 'Study of Obstacles to Cross Border Mobility'

8. Stephen Moutray: To ask the OFMDFM what assessment it has made of the desirability of constituting a new Civic Forum.

9. Stephen Farry: To ask the OFMDFM what role it had in the Republic of Ireland's current National Development Plan.

10. Daithí McKay: To ask the OFMDFM if it intends to formulate a strategy to deal with continued occurrences of hate crime, such as sectarian, racist or homophobic attacks.

11. Samuel Gardiner: To ask the OFMDFM how many staff are employed within the department; and how this compares with the Office of the Prime Minister; the Office of the First Minister of Scotland; the Office of the First Minister of Wales; the Office of the Taoiseach; and the President of the United States of America.

12. Robert Coulter: To ask the OFMDFM what discussions it has had with the First Minister of Scotland.