Stormont transcripts not available

Assembly members returned to Stormont last month

The "virtual assembly" currently sitting at Stormont is not subject to Freedom of Information legislation.

This emerged after members of the Preparation for Government Committee decided to ask the assembly's Hansard clerks to provide an accurate transcript of their proceedings.

The transcript will be circulated privately to committee members but will not be provided to the press or posted on the assembly website.

More cursory minutes of the committee meetings will be posted on the website.

The demand for a transcription of the committee proceedings followed a clash last week between Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness and the DUP's William McCrea and Ian Paisley Jnr.

Accusation

The Mid Ulster MP had accused the DUP members of imperilling his safety over the recent allegations, which he has denied, that he was a British agent.

Disputes over the minutes took up much of Monday's meeting of the committee, but members are now working their way through the parties' differing lists of obstacles to the return of devolution.

Sinn Fein wants the committee to address issues like policing and justice; the need for a peace dividend and the importance of a quiet summer.

The DUP raised the need for complete decommissioning; an end to criminality, and the need for everyone to support the police.

They also want increased accountability of the devolved institutions; an end to loyalist paramilitary activity, and progress on parades.

Alliance raised the need for reforms to the Assembly designation and voting systems.

They are once again championing a voluntary coalition; more collective responsibility in a future executive, and the need for a greater emphasis on integration in Northern Ireland society.

The SDLP highlighted all-Ireland cooperation; policing and justice issues; their objections to the 2004 Comprehensive Agreement, and the need for a programme for government which will address pressing social and economic concerns.

'Not consensus'

The Ulster Unionists also raised the Comprehensive Agreement; parades and law and order issues; the future of the IRA; whether politicians should be allowed to have a dual mandate, and the number of departments which should be included in any future executive.

The minutes for the first meetings of the committee, which were dominated by disputes over who should take the chair, are already on the assembly's website.

BBC Northern Ireland political editor Mark Devenport said the most frequently repeated phrase in the minutes of the first two sessions was that "there was not consensus and the proposal fell".

However, one committee member told the BBC that recent meetings have been more positive, with "the first signs of proper engagement" between committee members.

The committee is meant to be laying the groundwork for a visit by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern to Northern Ireland next week.