Brown O'Connor Communications Weekly Look Ahead: Week Commencing 20 December 2021

Forward Look

  • Please find attached a rundown of the legislation currently passing through the Assembly.

  • The Northern Ireland Assembly has risen for Christmas Recess. The next scheduled plenary session is on 17 January. The UK Parliament will return on 5 January.

  • The Executive has been told that “significant intervention” may be need in January if the Omicron variant is as severe as Delta. It comes as the deputy First Minister called for the reintroduction of furlough. The Executive is expected to meet again on Wednesday to take further decisions.

  • The Belfast Region City Deal has been signed off by government ministers. The deal will deliver over 20 projects with an investment of £1 billion over the next decade.

  • Finance Minister Conor Murphy MLA expects the Executive to agree the draft Budget by mid-February before purdah begins on 25 March.

  • The Fiscal Commission published its Interim Report which found there is a case to consider further taxes. Its next report is expected at the beginning of the next political mandate and will focus on income tax, fuel, alcohol, and tobacco duties, stamp duty land tax, air passenger duty, the apprenticeship levy, and landfill tax.

  • Economy Minister Gordon Lyons MLA has launched his department’s new energy strategy which sets three ambitions to ensure Northern Irelands energy is secure and affordable by 2030.

  • The UK Government announced that goods exported from Ireland to Great Britain will be temporarily exempted from new border controls on EU-GB trade which take effect on 1 January.

  • At the Education Committee, officials confirmed that the Special Schools Area Planning Strategy will be published in June 2022 after a further 12-week consultation.

  • Sinn Féin MLA Órlaithí Flynn will introduce a Private Members Bill to the Assembly on Suicide Prevention in the next term.

  • The Criminal Justice (Committal Reform) Bill passed all stages in the Assembly and will become law once it receives Royal Assent.

  • The Irish News has reported that Diane Dodds MLA is “expected” to stand down at the next Assembly Election, potentially allowing party leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson to stand in Upper Bann. The paper also reports that Edwin Poots’ seat in Lagan Valley would be ‘vulnerable’ if three DUP candidates stood in the constituency.

  • The EU will today publish a new proposal for guaranteeing medicine supplies from GB to Northern Ireland. BBC NI is also reporting that the UK Government has indicated that the European Court of Justice could have a role in the governance of the NI Protocol.

Other Stories this week

  • Alliance Belfast City Councillor Carole Howard has defected to the UUP.

  • Adam Smyth has been appointed as the interim director of BBC Northern Ireland.

  • Baroness Hallett has been appointed chair of the UK’s public inquiry into the Covid pandemic.

  • The Department for the Economy is seeking to appoint 7 board members to the Board of Invest Northern Ireland.

  • The Executive is to receive an additional £75 million to help with ongoing pandemic pressures. The Department of Finance claims £50m of this is not new money, however.

  • MLAs voted by 59 to 24 to approve the use of the Covid Certification Scheme.

  • DUP MLA Christopher Stalford’s Private Members Bill concerning abortion was rejected by the Assembly this week.

  • The latest NI Planning Statistics show that the average processing time for major applications was 56.4 weeks for the first six months of 2021/22, above the 30 week target.

  • Julie Gibbons, Managing Director of AbbeyAutoline, has been elected the new President of Newry Chamber of Commerce.

  • The Liberal Democrats have won the North Shropshire by-election, a seat the Conservatives had held for nearly 200 years.

Upcoming key political and business events

  • 14 January, A Seat with Sinn Féin, NICVA

  • 17 January, NI Assembly returns from Christmas Recess

  • 23 February, CO3 Leadership Breakfast

  • 10 March, Women in Business awards

  • 24 March, Belfast Chamber’s BelFastForward Conference

Consultations