Revised NI government plan published

NI assembly will vote again on executive's plan

Northern Ireland's first and deputy ministers have published the power-sharing executive's revised Programme for Government.

The 207-page document is an amended version of the detailed plan released in October last year.

First Minister David Trimble said that some important amendments had been made.

Deputy First Minister Seamus Mallon said the 257 proposals planned for the next three years provided unprecedented transparency to judge the Stormont executive's effectiveness.

Changes to the draft programme passed in the assembly, include proposals for the provision of a children's commissioner, free public transport for the elderly and a cross-departmental attempt to tackle smoking.

It also includes proposals for Public Service Agreements, a series of targets set for each government department and expanded policies on housing, education and the environment.

A feasibility study into an early retirement scheme for farmers is another feature of the programme, which is to be debated in the assembly next week.

But details of how the first round of Executive Programme Funds will be spent, will not be known until next month.

The funds, which include £28m for the next financial year, £100m for the following year and £200m for the final year, will be subject to a series of bids from each of the 11 departments.

Mr Trimble said it was the clearest possible proof that the local administration is functioning in an open way.

He said: "We never had anything like this under direct rule, you never had this amount of detail and when actually comparing what we have produced here with the draft, one will see that there are points of detail.

"The timescales are tighter, the targets are tighter. We are giving community benchmarks by which to judge the administration and the departments in terms of what they achieve."

Mr Mallon said: "It is for the first time, probably, that we have had a manifesto of that nature, that has been universally agreed and people have universally committed themselves to working."