Agenda item

            The Committee was reminded that the issue of the appointment of elected Members to the Transitional Belfast Education and Library Board remained unresolved after almost a year of correspondence between the Council and the Minister for Education.  In essence, the disagreement was centred on who should be entitled to nominate the elected representatives to be appointed to serve on the transitional Board.

            The Democratic Services Managere reminded the Committee further that, in December, 2009, it had first considered a request from the Minister to nominate eight Members from whom four would be chosen to serve on the Board.  The Committee, at its meeting on 11th December, had agreed to nominate only four Members, with the representatives being selected using a one-off d’Hondt process.  That had resulted in the nominations falling to the Sinn Féin, Democratic Unionist, Ulster Unionist and Social Democratic and Labour Party Groupings.  Throughout the subsequent correspondence, the Council had maintained the position that the four elected representatives should be appointed from the largest four political parties on the Council, thus reflecting on the transitional Board the wishes of the people of the City as expressed at the Local Council elections in 2005.  However, the Minister’s position was different in that she insisted that the Council submit eight names so that the principle of Ministerial choice was upheld.

            The Democratic Services Manager explained that, at its meeting on 24th September, the Committee had again considered the matter and had agreed that it be left to each of the four main Party Groupings to decide whether to submit one or two names to the Minister.  The Sinn Féin and Social Democratic and Labour Party Groupings had submitted two names each while the Democratic Unionist and Ulster Unionist Party Groupings had submitted one name only.  A letter had been sent to the Department of Education on 11th October explaining the Council’s position and urging the Minister to proceed to appoint the four elected Member representatives from that list of six names whilst ensuring that one elected Member from each of the four main Party Groupings was appointed.

            He informed the Committee that a further letter had been received from the Department indicating that “conversations with a purpose” had been held with the Council’s six nominees but that they could not proceed to appoint Councillors to the transitional Belfast Board until the nomination and application process had been completed.  The Department had made the points that Belfast was the only Council which had not submitted the requisite number of nominees to the Minister, that it had proceeded to make appointments of elected Members to several of the other Boards and that it could not proceed in Belfast until the Council submitted the names of an additional two candidates.  The current situation meant that that there was no political representation on the transitional Board in Belfast and the Committee was asked to consider the matter and take whatever action it considered to be appropriate.

            In response to a question from a Member, the Democratic Services Manager explained that the Committee could if it so wished rescind its previous decision and run a one-off d’Hondt process to appoint the eight nominees required by the Department of Education.  He explained that such a process would result in the following choices:

            Sinn Féin – Choices 1, 5 and 8

            Democratic Unionist – Choices 2 and 6

            Ulster Unionist – Choices 3 and 7

            Social Democratic and Labour – Choice 4

            He explained further that the d’Hondt system provided that, should a Party refuse to accept its choice, then the choice would pass to the next available on the d’Hondt table.  Accordingly, if the Democratic Unionist and Ulster Unionist Party Groups refused to nominate more than one candidate then, at choices 10 and 11, the Alliance and Social Democratic and Labour Party Groupings would be entitled to nominate candidates.

            The Committee agreed that it be left to the Democratic Unionist and Ulster Unionist Party Groupings to decide if they wished to submit a further one name each prior to the meeting of the Council scheduled to be held on 1st December and if they failed to do so then the previous decision be rescinded and a one-off d’Hondt process be applied to the eight nominees to be provided to the Department of Education.

(The Chairman, Councillor Crozier, in the Chair.)