The North's Minister of Social Development, Mr Nigel Dodds, has presented his spending plans for the coming fiscal year to the Assembly cross-party scrutiny committee and yesterday told its members he would seek guidance from them on all major policy issues.
Briefing the committee on departmental spending for 2000-01, Mr Dodds (DUP, North Belfast) said a total of £416 million would be spent on housing and urban regeneration. A further £3.4 billion would be spent on social security benefits. He said he was committed to consulting the committee on major issues.
The committee chairman, Mr Fred Cobain (UUP, north Belfast), welcomed the Minister's comments, saying: "The problems that we face we will face together."
In questions to the Minister, Ms Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Fein, Fermanagh and South Tyrone) asked for comparative waiting-list figures for Catholics and Protestants in north Belfast, and stressed that there was a huge waiting list of nationalists while "on the other side of interfaces there is a glut of houses".
The Finance Committee, under the chairmanship of Mr Francie Molloy (Sinn Fein, Mid Ulster), also sat in open session yesterday to discuss the Allowances to Members and Office Holders Bill and the Members' Pensions Bill. Mr John Fee (SDLP, Newry and Armagh) appeared before the committee as a member of the commission which drafted the proposed legislation.
Committee members opposed a clause which granted holders of Assembly offices an allowance of one-quarter of their salary when they cease to hold the office.
Mr Seamus Close (Alliance, Lagan Valley) said the extra payment was not justified and could be open to abuse.
Mr Fee recommended that the committee accept the allowances bill in its entirety without tabling amendments because it was based on the recommendations of the independent senior salaries review board, which had already been adopted by both Scotland and Wales.
"It may not be a very palatable measure, but it is there as a protective measure to ensure if a minister or chairman loses their post they are not going to find themselves in the bankruptcy court six weeks later."
The Assembly Committee for Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment also sat in open session for a briefing from the Northern Ireland Economic Council, under the chairmanship of Dr Esmond Birnie (UUP, south Belfast).