Mr. John McCallister:

I thank the Chairman for his opening comments on the Bill. It is key that we start to move to policy issues. There is a complete deficit in policy development. I sometimes envy parties in Dublin which are now putting together manifestoes for an election which will take place, it is to be presumed, in early spring. Whatever happens after that, the parties will come together and negotiate a programme for Government. At that point, there will probably be more genuine power sharing than we have in the North.

I am committed to power sharing, but I want to see genuine power sharing. I fear what we have currently is shared-out power. Dr. Eoin O'Malley gave evidence to the Assembly and Executive Review Committee. His comments were very strong:

Northern Irish ministers and departments operate almost as dictators within their own portfolio, not subject to the requirement to have cross-community support in areas that don't require primary legislation. That seems at odds to the purpose of institutional structures set up in the Belfast Agreement.

I am not sure I would go so far as to use the term "dictator", but unless primary legislation is needed, when a Minister in a Department can do things by regulation, there is very little control over such a Minister, unless approval needs to be sought through the Executive, at which point executive members can stop the Minister. Mr Maskey's colleague, the Minister, Mr. John O'Dowd MLA, admitted when he brought a Bill through the Assembly that one pretty much lost control of it in the Assembly because one may not have the numbers to get all that one wants or be able to block things that one does not want. This model is a much better way of delivering real genuine power sharing rather than shared-out power.

We have had too many divisions based on having some for this community and some for that community, and not enough based on genuinely delivering on the issues we heard about earlier with regard to educational underachievement, whether with regard to the Protestant or Catholic working class, and getting into real policy development. There are not enough consequences for the failure to deliver on any of this or to reform the system. In health, transforming care is the flagship policy, but is it a DUP flagship policy or the Northern Ireland Executive flagship policy? When any difficult decisions must be made, everybody runs for the hills. It is the same with education, employment and learning. This leads to the dysfunctionality of the Government and the very fact Ministers can sue each other. I am rock solid on power sharing, but I want to see genuine power-sharing. It is within the principles of the Good Friday Agreement, for which I voted in 1998. I want to see inclusivity in practice, but inclusivity can also include being in the political process.