AQO 2458/17-22 Oral question to the First Minister and deputy First Minister
To ask the First Minister and deputy First Minister for an update on when the report of the Commission on Flags, Identity, Culture and Tradition will be published.
Asked by Stewart Dickson MLA on 16 September 2021
- Answered
- Oral
- Answered in the Chamber
- Tabled
- 16 September 2021
- Answer due by
- 27 September 2021
- Answered
- 27 September 202111 days after tabling
- Department
- The Executive Office
- Priority question
- No
Answer
Answered in the Assembly Chamber on 27 September 2021. Extract from the Official Report (Hansard), including any supplementary questions:
Mrs O'Neill
With your permission, again, Mr Speaker, junior Minister Kearney will answer that question.
Mr Kearney
The Executive discussed the FICT report at their meeting last Thursday and agreed that the report should be published. Consideration is being given as to how best to facilitate that.
Mr Speaker
I call Stewart Dickson for a supplementary. Be brief, please.
Mr Dickson
I thank the Minister for his reply. Will the Minister explain, and elaborate on for the House, what is holding up publication of the report? What meetings have been held since the Minister's most recent announcement that the report was in preparation?
Mr Kearney
I thank the Member for that question. The same blockages remained over the summer when I was committed to making progress. I reported on those blockages on 28 June. My efforts to take this forward have, again, been frustrated. A special Executive meeting to discuss the report, recommendations and approved next steps should have convened at the end of April or beginning of May, but that did not happen. Therefore, I formally proposed to the Executive on 8 July that a full report be brought to the Executive by mid-September and that the report and recommendations be published at that time. The most recently scheduled meeting of the FICT working group was due to take place on 21 September, but that was cancelled. During the Executive meeting on 23 September, I called for the procrastination to end and again urged that the report be published, with an implementation plan. The Executive agreed with that position. That is appropriate. It is an Executive report. I intend to ensure that this commitment is delivered imminently. There is no excuse for any further delay or blocking on the matter.
Mr Speaker
That ends the period for listed questions. We move on to 15 minutes of topical questions. Question 7 has been withdrawn.