Northern Ireland Community Relations Council - About Us - Council Minutes

30 November 2006

MINUTES OF THE ONE HUNDRED & NINETEENTH MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY RELATIONS COUNCIL

HELD ON WEDNESDAY 29^th NOVERMBER 2006 & 1.30 p.m.

IN THE BOARDROOM, CRC OFFICES IN LINEN GREEN CENTRE, MOYGASHEL

1710/06 PRESENT: Action:

Mr E McCartan (Chairman), Mr W Erwin, Mr C O’Halloran, Ms M Hetherington Mr D O’Loan, Ms M Muldoon, Ms E Gallagher Dr D Stevens, Mr M Wardlow, Mr R Wilson.

1711/06 APOLOGIES:

Mr D Adams, Mr J Cousins, Mr T McCusker, Ms C Wilson.

1712/06 IN ATTENDANCE:

Dr D Morrow [CEO], Ms J Irwin [Deputy CEO], Mr J Fitzsimons [P/D DFAP], Mrs G Attwood[Policy Dev],. Ms H Scott [P/Secretary].

1713/06 OBSERVER:

MR Drew Haire (CRU)

1714/06 MINUTES:

The Minutes from the previous meeting (28 Sept 2006) having been circulated, were taken as read. There were no amendments. Acceptance proposed by Mr O’Loan, seconded by Dr Stevens.

1715/06 COMMON GROUN DVD:

This was shown on as members arrived. The Chair extended congratulations to Sean Ogilvy, Ward Erwin and Alison McAllister for their part in this production.

1716/06 CHAIRS BUSINESS:

Mrs Cynthia Smith is now Director of Equality Division in OFMDFM (this position was previously held by Mary Bunting)
Corporate planning day (20^th November) was very successful and Chair asked members to note their diaries that a further meeting was planned for 9^th January p.m. The Chair said that he would appreciate it if as many members as possible could attend this second meeting.

CEO

1717/06 MATTERS ARISING: Action :

(1) Recruitment [Mins 1700/06 refer]

The CEO advised that there was broad agreement with the Department to proceed however, there were some outstanding matters which needed to be attended to before CRC could move forward. As a result he said CRC would not be advertising this week. The CEO said that members would be up-dated as soon as appropriate.

CEO

(2) Strategic Plan [Mins 1701/06 refer]

The CEO confirmed that this would be dealt with under Agenda No. 5

(3) Cultural Diversity Media commission[Mins 17/03/06 refer]

The CEO told members that the broad approach has been agreed and investment would be in a single tendered award which would develop resources for school’s website. He said that Morrow Communications had been the successful applicant and assured members that although a distant relative, he had not been involved in anyway in the process.

1718/06 CORPORATE STRATEGIC PLANNING:

[Papers CRC/119/11/06/01, 01(a) & 01.1 tabled at meeting refer]

CEO reviewed outcomes and strategic objectives for 04-07 under the following headings:

· A shared vision of reconciliation

· Relevant CRC responses

· Peace building and good relations

· Good models of practice

· Effective delivery

There followed a general discussion.

Mr Wilson expressed the view that the one area CRC needed to move on was public debate and a pro-active communications strategy.

Mr Erwin requested that a copy of the presentation be sent to members.

This was agreed.

CEO

1718/06 Corporate Strategic Planning continued: Action:

01(a) Covering page to Strategic Plan which set out Aims, Principles, Planning Assumptions, Strategic Objectives..

01 CRC Strategic Plan 2007-2010

Ms Irwin pointed out that this was a first draft based on members discussions (20^th November) and with some additional assistance from Mr McCusker.

There followed a general discussion.

Owing to the poor quality of (most of) the copies and subsequent difficulty in reading the Plan, it was agreed to send further copies to members via e-mail.

CEO

The Chair asked members if they would respond to either Ms Irwin or Dr Morrow before 20^th December 2006 so that amendments/suggestions could be incorporated and brought to the meeting on the 9^th January 2007.

The Chair asked members to note their diaries of this second Corporate Planning meeting which would be held on Tuesday 9^th January probably p.m. He suggested that this date be e-mailed to all members so that those not present would have advance notice.

CEO

The Chair expressed gratitude to the staff and Council Members who had contributed towards the draft Plan.

01.1 Notes from Council strategic planning day (20^th November).

Ms Irwin said that these notes were for information of members.

1719/06 A SHARED FUTURE UPDATE:

[Paper CRC/119/11/06/02 refers]

The CEO apologised for the cancellation of the ASF sub-committee and for the short notice given. He said this had been due to a number of factors including on-going work priorities. He indicated that there were two main areas of progress:

(1) The establishment of a Good Relations Steering panel which would be chaired by Nigel Hamilton the first meeting of which was due to take place on 20 December 2006.

(2) The Comprehensive Spending Review and the bid to increase the budget to £10m which had just been approved by the Minister David Hanson.

1719/06 ASF Up-date continued: Action:

The CEO said that he had discussed the matter resources with Phil Taylor, the Secretary of State’s advisor when in London on 22 November.

1720/06 OPERATIONAL PLANNING:

[Papers CRC/119/11/06/03 & 03.1 refer]

(1) Performance Indicators 06-07 (03)

Ms Irwin advised members that there were the final version and that CRU had indicated its satisfaction with the indicators and targets.

(2) Equality up-date(03.1)

Ms Irwin said that this paper was to up-date members on the implementation of the CRC Equality Scheme and was a summary of development since the last Council meeting. She said that Good Relations training had taken place over a two day period.

1721/06 IFI TENDER:

[Paper CRC/119/11/06/04 refers – 3 copies were available for members]

[Mr Haire (CRU) declared an interest and left the room@ 2.30 p.m.]

The CEO reported that 13 Council members had responded (in the affirmative) to an e-mail (and enclosure) of 22^nd November which had asked members give an “indication of their willingness to proceed”. He said that he was satisfied that CRC’s tender was in line with previous Council approval to re-negotiate the contract with IFI and to develop the work with the Community Bridges Programme.

The CEO indicated that there were other applicants and that IFI might decided to give the tender to another organisation.

The followed a brief discussion.

[Mr Haire (CRU) returned to the meeting 2.40 p.m.]

1722/06 POLICY PAPERS:

[Papers CRC/119/11/06/05, 05.1, 05.2 & 05.3 refer]

05. Healing Through Remembering – A Private Day of Reflection.

The above paper (05) was approved

05.1 Northern Ireland Office – 50:50 Renewal & Lateral Entry

The above paper (05.1) was approved.

05.2. Police Service of Northern Ireland– Diversity Strategy

(Ms Muldoon declared an interest and left the room 2.45 p.m.)

1722/06 Policy papers continued: Action:

PSNI – Diversity strategy continued: After some discussion members felt that the response paper was good but there were some concerns around the issues of (i) sectarianism and (ii) racism and that, with the current focus on racism, sectarianism had appeared to be have been side-lined when in fact it continued to be a serious problem within NI. Some members felt that there was considerable under-reporting of sectarian incidents and that the PSNI document was not as user friendly as it might have been.

The Chair suggested that as CRC’s response was, in the broad sense, good it should not be changed but it might be useful to send a covering letter addressing concerns expressed. This was agreed.

Mrs Attwood said there might be a further opportunity in January if the strategy was reissued.

05.3. Arts Council of Northern Ireland – Re-Imaging Strategy Equality

Impact Assessment

The CEO suggested that removing murals was important but, he felt, what mattered more was how the communities wish to reinvent themselves. He said it was important that gable walls and walls in general were not “owned” by “gatekeepers” but by communities and what a shared space, an open space would look like for these communities.

After a general discussion this paper was approved.

1723/06 FINANCE (& PERSONNEL):

[Papers CRC/119/11/06/06, 06.1 & 06.2 refer]

10.1 Profile of Expenditure & notes (06(a) & 06(b) refers)

Mr Fitzsimons stated actual expenditure was consistent with expected level of activity and that spend towards full allocation was anticipated at 31 March 2007.

10.2 Small Grant Review (06.1 A to E)

Mr Fitzsimons reported that the Small Grants Scheme continued to be frozen and that no new applications were being accepted at the moment.

He said the Expenditure Review indicated the flavour of 2 months spend on the various schemes.

10.3 Report from General Purposes Committee (06.2)

Mr Fitzsimons said that this paper summarised the main issues. With regard to the IFI Community Bridges he said there were likely to be substantive issues which would be discussed later (Agenda No. 13)

1723/06 Finance (& Personnel) continued: Action

General Purposes Committee Cont: The CEO pointed out that staff absence had been reduced to 2.23%

Mr McCartan asked Mr Fitzsimons for his assurance of good governance in CRC’s financial affairs.

Mr Fitzsimons confirmed ALL WAS WELL.

1724/06 CEO’S REPORT:

[Paper CRC/119/11/06/07 refers]

The CEO reported that in terms of activity he had not known a busier time.

He said that the biggest challenge internally was the way forward in terms of A Shared Future and government’s commitment to resources.

The CEO said that events run by CRC e.g. Live Issues, Victims Conference, Roundtable with Dr Fitzduff, Housing Seminar, Interface Conference, Research Roundtable and Voluntary Sector Research had provided opportunities for interesting conversations .

Dr Morrow reported there had been challenges to CRC from politicians and Sinn Fein at the Live Issues conference and some of these had been around the perception that equality considerations were being subordinated to appease political interests under A Shared Future.

There followed a general discussion around the issue equality versus sharing.

There was general agreement that this debate was an important and would be carried forward possibly through an event(s). CEO

1725/06 SECTOR REPORTS:

[Papers CRC/119/11/06/08 to 11 refer]

European Programme

(Paper CRC/119/11/06/08 refers)

Funding & Development Programme

(Paper CRC/119/11/06/09 refers)

Mr Wardlow (Chair, Core Funding Committee) said that he felt it was a travesty that the Small Grants Scheme had had to be frozen. He pointed out that pieces of work that could not receive funding under the other schemes, could, even as an interim measure, obtain funding from this source. He pointed out that a lot of good work had carried out under this scheme.

1725/06 Sector Reports (Funding & Development Programme) continued:

It was agreed that Mr Wardlow would write (as Chair) to CRU articulating these concerns.

Mr Wardlow

The Chair suggested that CRC should also write a letter to CRU expressing its concerns given the increased rhetoric around A Shared Future and increased expectation but which had not been supported by additional resources.

This was agreed.

CEO

Communication & Learning Resources

(Paper CRC/119/11/06/10 refers)

Policy Development Programme

(Paper CRC/119/11/06/11 refers)

1726/06 AOB

None.

1727/06 STAFFING MATTERS : CLOSED BUSINESS

1728/06 NEXT MEETINGS:

Wednesday 31^st January 2007

Wednesday 28^th March 2007

Wednesday 30^th May 2007

Thursday 28^th June 2007