36 MLAs have signed a motion calling on the Environment Minister Arlene Foster to set up an independent Environmental Protection Agency within the lifetime of this assembly. But interviewed for tomorrow's Inside Politics, she says she is still awaiting detailed costings for setting up such an agency. We also discuss the Giants Causeway, her intention to overhaul the Planning Service and her views on the SDLP-UUP internal opposition.
Inside Politics is broadcast on Radio Ulster at 12.45pm.
Earlier this week I had a cup of tea with Trina Vargo of the US Ireland Alliance, the organisation which sends Mitchell scholars to universities north and south of the border. She is heavily involved in plans to mark the 10th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in April next year. Her idea is to re-unite some of the key players from 1998 and hold a question and answer session in front of an audience of Mitchell scholars and young people from Northern Ireland.
Ms Vargo has also been canvassing whether there is an appetite in any of Belfast's interface areas for a section of the peace line to be pulled down at the time of the anniversary. She has visited a number of the areas and says that she has found that often local people are keener for the walls to come down than some of their political representatives.
So should the walls come down, or is April 2008 still too early for such a venture? And if not then, when? Are the walls vital for people's safety, or have they become a convenient crutch?
Back in his old Drumcree days, David McNarry famously threatened that the Orange order could "paralyse this country in a matter of hours". Well last night he nearly managed to paralyse ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Newsline in a matter of minutes.
The Ulster Unionist was in the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ to take part in a "Hearts and Minds" discussion. But after a mix up in make up he donned the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Newsline presenter Mark Carruthers' jacket and went home.
Panic ensued as Newsline approached and the presenter's jacket could not be found. Eventually the mix up was discovered, but not in time to exchange garments.
So it was that Mark Carruthers presented the news wearing David McNarry's jacket. The Ulster Unionist MLA reckoned ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ Newsline had done well out of the unscheduled swap, as he reckons his jacket is better than Mr Carruthers'.
As a dedicated environmentalist, Jim Wells is well known as the one man "green" wing of the DUP. But there were some strange goings on at a rural planning debate at the Stormont Hotel on Wednesday. Speakers discussed what should replace the controversial PPS14 ban on new building in the countryside. But according to a press release from Sinn Fein's Cathal Boylan "Jim Wells was due to participate in the debate but after the first two speakers had given their opening statements he informed the organisers that he would not be able to take part".
A source from another party told the ³ÉÈËÂÛ̳ that Mr Wells got a text message, left the platform, made his way out of the room and when he returned took a seat in the audience.
When contacted the South Down MLA couldn't comment on whether he had been gagged, but clarified that in the future he would be speaking on South Down constituency issues and topics covered by his Regional Development brief.
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