Opinion

Newton Emerson: Stormont needs to ensure a staycation is also fun

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson

Newton Emerson writes a twice-weekly column for The Irish News and is a regular commentator on current affairs on radio and television.

Staycations could be a popular holidday choice this year due to the threat of coronavirus
Staycations could be a popular holidday choice this year due to the threat of coronavirus Staycations could be a popular holidday choice this year due to the threat of coronavirus

With Northern Ireland’s hotels, caravan parks and self-catering accommodation permitted to open from July 20, DUP economy minister Diane Dodds is urging us all to consider a staycation. The problem, perfectly summed up by Derry hotelier Brendan Duddy, is that “no one is going to come anywhere... to sit in a hotel bedroom”.

What else will be open by July 20? Stormont waits on science to decide. But while making promises on bars and restaurants would be premature, there is a great deal the executive could safely clarify now on a wide range of activities and attractions.

The National Trust has shown the way with a gradual reopening from this week, with advanced booking and other systems in place. Stormont has a phased reopening plan but it is vague and unambitious. Even at the current stage of lockdown, proper arrangements could be made and details given for visiting beaches, mountains, lakes and other beauty spots.

“Outdoor museums”, mentioned on stage two of the plan, covers numerous key attractions that will hardly be closed once hotels are safe to open.

It should not be beyond the wit of Northern Ireland’s tourist promotion bureaucracy to set out our summer holiday options. As for Dodds, what politician would not want to be the minister for fun?

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The hold-up over pensions for Troubles victims has been portrayed as an argument between Stormont and Westminster over who should foot the bill.

But Sinn Féin has let slip its real concern is eligibility. The scheme the government legislated for last year in Stormont’s absence does not cover people with a serious conviction for causing their own injury. That applies to only a handful of cases.

The law also creates a board to judge if pensions are “inappropriate” due to “exceptional circumstances”. Sinn Féin claims the NIO has issued guidance that any serious conviction is inappropriate, which the party says would apply to “thousands” of people. This appears to be an exaggeration.

The majority of victims, who have no convictions, are caught again in what looks like horse-trading. While the government scheme has met with unionist approval, it would be wrong to see the current deadlock as a DUP-Sinn Féin stand-off. Focusing on the financial row with London is a DUP-Sinn Féin truce, at least for now.

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There is no truce at Stormont’s finance committee - not that there should be, as committees are meant to hold the executive to account.

When DUP deputy chair Paul Frew asked Sinn Féin finance minister Conor Murphy about the latter’s failed PPE order from China, Murphy asked if Frew brought the same “righteous indignation” to his own party meetings when RHI is discussed.

As well as being unwise whataboutery, this misunderstood how Stormont scrutiny is meant to work.

More seriously, the Department of Finance has refused to hand over emails requested by the committee, without citing a reason - and there is no reason it can give. Full disclosure to committees is guaranteed under the law enacting the Good Friday Agreement, making refusal a fundamental threat to Stormont’s structures. Is that worth it to spare the minister’s blushes?

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There was the basis of an agreement in the abortion motion and amendment from the DUP and Sinn Féin. Both rejected abortion for non-fatal abnormalities between 24 weeks and full term - in line with public opinion and the law in the Republic.

Yet Sinn Féin still ended up condemned from all sides by trying to triangulate itself onto the fence, while criticising everyone else. This convoluted politicking was doubly futile as Stormont cannot overturn Westminster’s decriminalisation of abortion. The real fight for abortion services in Northern Ireland lies in the executive’s failure to commission them, under a UUP health minister who has declared the matter “cross-cutting”. The executive consensus this requires ensures inaction.

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With fears of a bidding war for students and universities going bust, the Department for Education in London has introduced an emergency 5 per cent cap on new student numbers at all universities in England, then unilaterally applied a 6.5 per cent cap to the devolved regions. So Queen's University Belfast, with around 300 first year undergraduates from England, can only recruit 320 for September. Exceeding that figure would result in financial penalties for Stormont.

It is easy to foresee this supposedly temporary arrangement, due to the epidemic, becoming permanent.

Students from Britain, alongside overseas students, are the only way Northern Ireland’s two universities can grow, as Stormont caps local student numbers due to subsidising their fees. That cap looks increasingly unsustainable.

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Northern Ireland Water was warned it will introduce a hosepipe ban if households do not reduce consumption. Let us hope it makes a better job of it than its last ban in 2018, when it exceeded its powers after mistakenly following the law in Britain. It took repeated threats of court action by the attorney general to make the government-owned company admit it was wrong.

Under Northern Ireland law, hosepipe bans can only apply to watering a garden or washing a car. Getting fined for filling a paddling pool is one lockdown nightmare we can be spared.