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NI Assembly: Stormont departments 'should be allocated next week', says McGuinness | NI Assembly: Stormont departments 'should be allocated next week', says McGuinness |
(about 1 hour later) | |
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has said he expects the Stormont parties could allocate government departments at the start of next week. | |
The DUP, Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Alliance Party are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss a draft document on Stormont's programme for government. | The DUP, Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Alliance Party are due to meet on Tuesday to discuss a draft document on Stormont's programme for government. |
However, the SDLP and Alliance have yet to decide if they will form part of the Northern Ireland Executive. | |
The Ulster Unionists said last week they would not be taking a department. | The Ulster Unionists said last week they would not be taking a department. |
Instead, they will form Stormont's first ever official opposition. | Instead, they will form Stormont's first ever official opposition. |
Model | Model |
The draft document on the key points of the programme for government - a plan of priorities and action for the new Northern Ireland Executive - is "weak", according the the SDLP's Claire Hanna. | The draft document on the key points of the programme for government - a plan of priorities and action for the new Northern Ireland Executive - is "weak", according the the SDLP's Claire Hanna. |
She added that it contains "a lot of very aspirational language which wouldn't allow anybody to hold any future government to account". | She added that it contains "a lot of very aspirational language which wouldn't allow anybody to hold any future government to account". |
But Mr McGuinness of Sinn Féin said it is based on a model previously tried out in Scotland and Finland. | But Mr McGuinness of Sinn Féin said it is based on a model previously tried out in Scotland and Finland. |
He added that he wants all of the sectors of civil society to buy into the final programme for government. | He added that he wants all of the sectors of civil society to buy into the final programme for government. |
Direction | |
The BBC has seen an early draft of a framework document prepared for the politicians by Stormont officials. | |
It contains 33 indicators of the direction the power-sharing executive wants Northern Ireland's society to move in. | |
On health matters, they include increasing healthy life expectancy, improving the quality of healthcare experience and improving mental health. | |
In terms of education, they document targets an improvement in educational outcomes, the quality of education workforce skills. | |
Employment and economic aims include increasing the number of people in work, reducing poverty and increasing the size and competitiveness of the economy. | |
Other targets include increasing the use of public transport, improve Northern Ireland's attractiveness as a destination and increasing respect for each other. | |
Outcomes | |
An accompanying document makes some tentative suggestions about how progress towards achieving these goals could be measured. | |
But at this point it does not contain any specific targets like the job creation, investment and visitor numbers pledges contained in the Programme for Government 2011-15. | |
The draft framework document also contains 13 proposed outcomes. | |
They include: | |
Consultation | |
According to last year's Fresh Start agreement, officials were due to have a framework for a future programme for government prepared by the end of last month. | |
The current talks were then supposed to resolve a draft programme for government that could be put to the Northern Ireland Assembly for its approval. | |
Critics claim this timetable is already slipping as the politicians are currently considering a framework rather than a fuller draft programme. | |
The document seen by the BBC is expected to be amended by the parties then put out to a three-month public consultation. | |
A full programme for government will be published towards the end of the year, alongside a new budget, economic strategy, investment strategy and social policy plan. |