I am indebted to our ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Wales Westminster Correspondent Aled Ap Dafydd for the information that the Conservatives Northern Ireland Spokesman in the House of Lords, Lord Glentoran, claims more in allowances and expenses than any other peer. In the financial year to March 2007 he claimed £85,000 despite only attending 125 days compared to some who sat in the Upper House for 146. It's not his first time leading the pack. As Robin Dixon, Lord Glentoran famously won a gold medal in the bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck in 1964.
The devolution of justice may not be complete by May 2008, but the Agriculture Department hopes a survey of local badgers which it starts this month will be. Michelle Gildernew wants to look at the survey results before she decides what to do about badgers suspected of passing on TB to cattle. But reading between the lines of a recent written Stormont answer she seems to be considering whether to vaccinate the animals. No such qualms for her questioner, the DUP's Jim Shannon, who as regular readers of this column will know, normally favours a direct approach. He wants to know when the minister plans to start culling the badgers.
All this raised in my mind's eye an image of a surveyor, clip board in hand, trying to ascertain our local badgers' views on the future.
If you would prefer to be vaccinated tick box A. If you would rather be culled tick box B.
On "Stormont Live" yesterday, in between trying to stave off a November cold, I suggested to the Northern Ireland Local Government Association's Arnold Hatch that the public were maybe not that bothered about the proposed shake up in local councils. Most of the publicity surrounding the shake up has concerned whether the Environment Minister Arlene Foster might recommend that instead of seven super councils, we should retain eleven. That announcement isn't expected until January.
But yesterday's debate at Stormont concentrated on how much power should be devolved to any new councils. NILGA is annoyed that the latest recommendation does not give them as many new functions as suggested under the previous direct rule plan.
Powers to be retained by central government under the new blueprint include development planning, local roads, the NI Fire and Rescue Service, and housing responsibilities. The proposal is to still give the councils some planning powers, local arts promotion, urban regeneration and community development and some responsibilities over roads, like maintaining street lights and cutting the verges.
It was always predictable that once devolution was restored local ministers would be less willing to give away their powers than their direct rule predecessors. But my point to Arnold Hatch was that this seemed to me to be an argument exclusively between politicians - surely the voters don't care who provides a service so long as they get it?
This morning I had a chat with Stephen Hugget, a Fermanagh Councillor who sits on NILGA's working party. He countered my argument by suggesting that who runs the service will have a direct impact on how good that service will be. For example, a roads service employee might be more diligent if his bosses are right on his doorstep rather than back at HQ in Belfast.
So is the public bothered about the council/Stormont debate, and if not should they be? And, dry as the talk of council functions might be, is this debate more important than the catchier one about how many councils might survive?
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