Allister Forces Movement on North - South Body and asks, Why did we spend £19 million on a body based in Co Cork?
14 July 2011
Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“I have tabled a series of Assembly questions designed to highlight the waste of tax payer’s money on North-South Bodies and the fundamentally anti-Unionist culture of these politically contrived institutions.
“An answer which I have previously highlighted underscored the situation which pertains in Waterways Ireland where just 29 of the 92 non-agency staff employed in Northern Ireland are Protestant. I also commented on the fact that one cannot even discover the community background of Waterways Ireland staff in the Republic as there is “no legal requirement to do so”.
“I am pleased that as a result of my questions the Health Minister Edwin Poots has now asked that the Food Safety Promotion Board – which does not employ anyone in Northern Ireland – begin to monitor the community background of staff. I hope that my highlighting of the issue will force other Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive to seek to establish the same practice when it comes to North/South Bodies which they fund. Whether Mr Poots’s request is complied with remains to be seen.
“However, regardless of how the situation develops major questions about the Food Safety Promotion Board remain. As a result of another Assembly question I have established that since it was set up in 2001 Northern Ireland tax payers have contributed over £19,000,000 to a body which doesn’t employ a single person in Northern Ireland. It is simply scandalous that at a time when the health budget is under severer pressure we should be spending over two million a year on an organisation based in Co Cork.
“While it is right that Edwin Poots should, following my probing of the issue, seek to bring the Food Safety Promotion Board’s employment practices into line with those in Northern Ireland – although I think we all know that the number of Protestants likely to be employed there will be small given what happened to the minority community in Co Cork during the War of Independence – a greater challenge remains. Will he continue to fund a body which delivers nothing of substance to Northern Ireland and employs none of our citizens?”
Note to editors:
Mr Allister’s questions and the answers received are below.
To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety how much funding his Department has allocated to the Food Safety Promotion Board in each year since 1998.
Expenditure committed to FSPB in the NI block grant in each financial year since it was established is as follows.
2001/2002 £1,500,000
2002/2003 £1,251,500
2003/2004 £1,598,000
2004/2005 £1,824,000
2005/2006 £1,849,000
2006/2007 £2,083,000
2007/2008 £1,978,000
2008/2009 £2,299,284
2009/2010 £2,542,374
2010/2011 £2,091,000
FSPB operates on a calendar year, not the British financial year.
To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety how many staff are employed by the Food Safety Promotion Board in (i) Northern Ireland; and (ii) the Republic of Ireland.
The Food Safety Promotion Board employs 30.8 Whole-Time Equivalent (WTE) staff, all of whom are employed in the Republic of Ireland.
To ask the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety for a breakdown of the community background of staff employed by the Food Safety Promotion Board.
The Food Safety Promotion Board has historically not monitored the community background of staff as it does not employ any staff in Northern Ireland. I have asked that they now begin to monitor the community background of staff.
