Assembly Business

The failure of the Executive to achieve anything of substance over the summer is brought into stark relief next week when the Assembly Plenary sessions return but have no Executive business to discuss. A meeting is scheduled for 18 September and perhaps the log jam will be broken then – if the meeting goes ahead. The word is that having stared into the abyss and had a bit of a rant at each other the ‘mood music’ between Sinn Fein and the DUP is much better.
Two pieces of legislation continue their on their procedural path - the Second Stage of the Diseases of Animals Bill and the Second Stage of the Presumption of Death Bill. Rumours that the latter is designed to declare the Assembly dead are not true.

Monday also sees a raft of Assembly Committee changes – mainly DUP but also some UUP. Tuesday is entirely taken up with Private Members Motions on; Neighbourhood Renewal, Executive Matters, Foetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder and Integrated Schools. The one entitled ‘Executive Matters’ seems to be designed by the SDLP to let off a summer’s full of frustration about the inertia in the Executuve.