The North's Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon, has urged political parties linked to paramilitary organisations not to make the first piece of legislation introduced to the Assembly by the Northern Executive its final piece of legislation.
Introducing the second reading of the Equality (Disability) Bill which now enters committee stage, Mr Mallon (SDLP, Newry and Armagh) said yesterday that the needs of disabled people, who comprise an estimated 17 per cent of the North's adult population, would not be addressed if power returned to Westminster.
"I will ask some of those people, and they know who they are, to reflect on the high price that we will all pay if the institutions designed to implement that agenda are suspended because of the outdated dogma of organisations to which they may be related," he said.
Mr Dermot Nesbitt (UUP, South Down), a junior minister in the central department of Mr Trimble and Mr Mallon, said the Executive was attempting to ensure that the North's Equality Commission would be a body disabled people could turn to for assistance.
He stressed that the vast majority of disabled people had a hidden disability. "It is not merely a wheelchair that indicates disability. That we must be very conscious of."
Ms Patricia Lewsley (SDLP, Lagan Valley) welcomed the Bill and said it would help society make inroads into discrimination.
"I believe it is incumbent upon this House to lead by example in addressing the needs of the disabled. We must start by making Parliament Buildings more accessible than they currently are," she said. Ms Monica McWilliams (Women's Coalition, South Belfast) said the granting of investigative powers to the Equality Commission was a positive development but added that "monitoring, evaluating and enforcing" the Bill was as important as passing it.
Meanwhile, the North's Minister for Agriculture, Ms Brid Rodgers, and the North's Minister for Culture, Arts and Leisure, Mr Michael McGimpsey, yesterday took members' questions.
An early retirement plan for farmers was suggested to Ms Rodgers by Mr Ian Paisley jnr (DUP, North Antrim). She stressed that only an estimated 570 out of 59,000 farmers in the North would benefit and she would prefer to fund "maximum winners and minimum losers".
Mr Eugene McMenamin, (SDLP, West Tyrone) asked what help had been given to primary producers. Ms Rodgers said short-term help would be made available.