A Grilling At Westminster
I flew over to London today for a mixture of two stories. Denis Bradley and Lord Eames were facing a grilling from MPs on the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee. Although Shuan Woodward's intervention, ruling out the £12,000 "recognition payment" looked likely to take some heat out of the occasion, the hearing hadn't been going long before there were some pointed exchanges between the two witnesses and both the Committee chair, Sir Patrick Cormack, and the DUP MP Iris Robinson, who invoked memories of the La Mon bombing.
Mrs Robinson's colleague David Simpson called the payment proposal "obnoxious". He expressed disappointment that the fingerprints of Lord Eames, who had officiated at the MP's relatives' funerals, were on the recommendation and accused Denis Bradley of pushing an agenda. At this point the SDLP's Alasdair McDonnell got up from his committee seat in protest and Sir Patrick Cormack had to calm proceedings. Later Mr Bradley hit back by criticising politicians who had responded to their report "obnoxiously".
When I talked to Lord Eames and Denis Bradley this morning they wouldn't admit the proposed payment had been a mistake, and predicted that society would have to return to the need for some kind of "recognition" in the future. At the same time they didn't seem at all surprised about the Secretary of State's decision and looked forward to some of their other recommendations being implemented.
My colleague Vincent Kearney will have more on these exchanges on Evening Extra and ´óÏó´«Ã½ Newsline.
I then headed towards the Commons to hear how discussions between Gordon Brown and the heads of the three devolved administrations had been going. Their meeting had been scheduled to deal with financial matters, and in the run up to the encounter the Scottish First Minister has been warning that London imposed efficiency savings could lead to thousands of job losses in Scotland. The SNP took heart from the opposition of the Finance Minister Nigel Dodds to the proposed £5 billion proposed efficiency savings.
During the meeting Gordon Brown repeated London's position that all the devolved administrations should play their part in making efficiencies. Messrs Robinson and McGuinness countered that Tony Blair and Gordon Brown had made financial promises at the time devolution was restored which should be honoured.
Today's encounter doesn't appear to have led to any conclusion. The details are going to be chewed over in a meeting of Finance Ministers in mid March.
On the margins of the meeting, the First and Deputy First Ministers again raised the plight of the savers at the Presbyterian Mutual Society. Martin McGuinness says they have a promise from Gordon Brown of another meeting on this subject, but again there's no sign as yet of any real movement from London on this score.
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