The Alliance Party Annual Conference will be held at the Dunadry hotel, near Antrim, on Saturday 22nd January 2011. The conference begins at 10:00 with Naomi Long’s speech at 11:30 and David Ford making his Leader’s speech at noon.
Everybody is welcome to attend.
41st Alliance Annual Conference
Saturday, 22nd January 2011, Dunadry Hotel
Agenda
10.00am Welcome from Party President
10.15am Introductions to 2011 Election Candidates:
This will include a few five-minute mini-policy speeches from some of our 2011 election candidates
10. 30am Fine Gael leader, Enda Kenny’s key note speech
10.45am Introductions to 2011 Election Candidates:
This will include several five-minute mini-policy speeches from some of our 2011 election candidates
11.45am Deputy Leader’s Speech
12pm Party Leader’s Speech
12.30pm Lunch
1.30pm Law Centre (NI): Access to Justice after Devolution (upstairs)
Les Allamby (Director of Law Centre (NI)) will give an overview of what Law Centre (NI) sees as the key access to justice issues today (e.g. the fundamental legal aid review, tribunal reform and Alternative Dispute Resolution). (Chair: Stephen Farry MLA)
1.30pm Irish Peace Centres fringe event. Panel participants include Breidge Gadd, Noreen Campbell, Anna Lo, Naomi Long and Chris Lyttle. (Chair: Peter Sheridan – CEO Irish Preace Centres and Cooperation Ireland)
2.45pm Kindly sponsored by FSB-The Federation of Small Business: “Managing our Finances and Growing the Economy in the Age of Cuts” is a panel-led audience discussion with Siobhan McAleer (founder of the Mortgage Shop); Angela McGowan (Chief Economist – Northern Bank); John Woods (Former Director Friends of the Earth); & Seamus
McAleavey (Chief Executive – Nicva). (Chair: Stephen Farry)
3.45pm Award of Prizes
4.00pm Motion 1: Transport
Conference expresses alarm at the poor state of the transport infrastructure in NI and the imbalance in funding between roads and public transport.
Conference therefore:
· supports the re-direction of funding towards public transport as the most viable solution to deal with congestion in our towns and cities, to help reduce our carbon footprint and to minimise our dependency on imported fossil fuels;
· believes that access to affordable transport should be available to all our communities, including those located in rural areas.
4.20pm Motion 2: Shared Future
Conference recognises the critical importance of a shared future towards achieving economic prosperity and addressing social deprivation. Conference further recognises that managing a divided society has a detrimental impact on our public sector finances and limits our ability to invest in the measures that create growth and stability within our economy.
Conference therefore:
· demands that the Executive puts in place a robust strategy to promote a shared society;
· calls for a substantial re-draft of the Draft Programme for Cohesion, Sharing and Integration to reflect a true commitment to the development of a shared society across Government.
4.45pm Conference Close
7.30pm Drinks
8.00pm Dinner
Comedian & actor Dan Gordon is our guest speaker