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Thursday, 11 February 2010

Education 'price' for justice deal

UUP leader Sir Reg Empey has told UTV his party won't sign up to the Hillsborough deal unless a "consensus" is found to solve the education debate.

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"How can I ask my party colleagues that we put our hands up on policing and justice when we can't even deal with education?" Sir Reg asked on Thursday night.

Read Ken Reid's blog: What's next?

"I want the politicians to get down to it in the next few weeks and get a consensus on education," he told UTV.

"Our children are more important, in my view, than simply devolving policing and justice".

In recent weeks, the UUP leader has been highly critical of what he calls the "dysfunctional nature of the executive".

Last Friday, he said the UUP was reserving judgement on the policing and parades deal brokered by the DUP and Sinn Fein after repeatedly complaining that he had been kept in the dark during the marathon talks.

"Sir Reg Empey has been listening to Peter Robinson saying the DUP needs the confidence of the entire Unionist community to complete the deal," UTV's Political Editor Ken Reid wrote on his blog.

"The Ulster Unionists leader is understandably asking a price".

Schools set their own transfer tests after the 11-plus was abolished by Sinn Fein Education minister Caitriona Ruane in 2008, without political consensus for an alternative.

Last Saturday, almost 14,000 primary school children across Northern Ireland who sat the controversial tests got the results allowing them to apply for a place at a secondary or grammar school.

The tests went ahead at the end of last year without the Department of Education support.

"We're having senior politicians meeting every single day for the next fortnight to talk about parades," Sir Reg told UTV.

"That's important. But the executive hasn't discussed the education for over two years".

"If we deal with parades, why can't we deal with education? And we are looking at this as a litmus test of whether the Executive is going to be capable of taking on any more powers" Sir Reg added.

Policing and justice powers will be devolved on 12 April, if a resolution jointly tabled by the First and Deputy First Ministers gets cross-community support in an Assembly vote.

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2 Comments

At 12:11 on 12 February 2010, Jim wrote:

Parades are important to the Orange Order, and a few others. Education is important to ALL of the people. So what's your point Reg?

At 07:47 on 12 February 2010, T J McClean wrote:

'We're having senior politicians meeting every single day for the next fortnight to talk about parades," Sir Reg told UTV. "That's important. But the executive hasn't discussed the education for over two years". "If we deal with parades, why can't we deal with education? We look at this as a test to see whether the executive is going to be capable of taking on many more powers," Sir Reg added.' Sir Reg is actually making a very valid point.