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07 May 2004

Minutes of the

Policy Development Committee Meeting

7^th May 2004

Present: Robin Wilson (Chair for meeting), Edwin Graham, Neil Jarman, Ward Erwin, Declan O'Loan

Apologies: Roise Ni Bhaoill, Niall Fitzduff, Eamon Deane, Vivienne Pollock, Nelson McCausland, Jacqueline Irwin, Patricia O'Neill, Ali McAlister. 

In Attendance: David Adams (Ind Consultant), Roz Goldie, May De Silva (Women into Politics). Dympna McGlade, David Russell, Cathy Curran, Peter Thompson

Mr Wilson welcomes everyone to the meeting and introduces Ms Curran (Development Officer – V&S, CRC) who will be sitting in on the meeting.

Minutes of last meeting

Three changes noted to previous minutes.  Minutes then agreed as accurate.

Matters Arising

1. Shared Future

Mary Bunting attended Residential.  A framework on Government proposals will be published in June.  CRC has been involved privately with this.  OFMDFM have requested a 3-week secondment of Ms McGlade to help with the framework.  Ms McGlade has freed up time and is currently in the process of setting up meetings to work with Government Departments to get them to respond.  CRC is now back in the loop after a lengthy silence following the Shared Future Conference.

2. Newtownabbey 

A meeting has been set-up with N'Abbey Borough Council to try and settle the controversy over the research commissioned by CRC.  Dr Morrow and Ms McGlade due to attend. Unfortunately Dr Morrow cannot go as it clashes with the launch of 'Sarah Moves On' (film partly sponsored by CRC). Ms McGlade explained that the main issue the hope to settle is that the discussion paper was an internal document and in fact still is.

3. Asylum

The meeting was told that Maghaberry, Hydebank and Crumlin were to be part of a consultation by the Government into the possible use of these buildings as holding centres for asylum seekers in Northern Ireland.

4. Hate Crimes / Community Safety Unit

Monitoring forum to record incidents of hate crime on a central database.  It will be independent from the police and people will be able to report incidents from a number of different outlets.  A working group will be set up with key organisations such as the PSNI, NICEM and Rainbow Project etc.

5. ASBOs

CRC has been consulted on draft legislation, which is going out next week.  ASBOs will be operational by autumn. It has moved away from a target at youth and would only be used as a last option.

After discussion the committee stated that they would be very interested to learn how ASBOs would be used in relation to Flags and Emblems.  For example “Does the erection of F&E's represent an anti-social behaviour”.

Women into Politics research report

Women into Politics gave a talk to the committee on the findings of research they undertook in 3 areas around Belfast.  They explained that a lot of information has been gathered from the 3 Focus groups. 

May De Silva stressed the importance of funding these events and especially single sex events and hopes CRC would consider funding more.

Overview of research into selected Council areas – Neil Jarman and David Adams

Mr Jarman told the meeting that the research they are conducting would be limited due to the short timescale they had to produce it.  It would simply be a snapshot of the council areas selected.  It will be in the same form as the N'Abbey research, with information gathered from local newspapers, police, politicians etc.

The Council areas selected for the research are:

Antrim

Larne

Cookstown

Craigavon.

Mr Jarman and Mr Adams both gave overviews to the committee highlighting the problems they had unearthed in those Council areas.  Many of these issues were not being addressed or even acknowledged as a problem.  The reports will be completed towards the end of June.

Policy Development Conference

The committee was updated on how preparations for the conference were going.  Ms McGlade explained that uptake for the conference has been steady but was slowing down.  Number of returned registration forms currently stood at 65.

The committee members were shown the registration form for the conference, which contained information on the Programme and agenda etc for the day.  They were asked to take some away with them and to distribute to people who might be interested in attending.

AOB

The committee was asked if they were agreeable to a dinner with staff before the summer in order to review and reflect over the first year of the P&D Committee.  Ms McGlade thought that this would be a good opportunity for members to state whether they are happy to continue on or wish to leave the committee.  After discussion it was agreed that a Thursday or Friday evening would be the most suitable time for the majority of committee members.  Mr Thompson agreed to look into a venue for this.

Grainne Kelly from Democratic Dialogue to speak at next meeting.

Date of next meeting

Friday 18^th June, 2pm