SOUTH Antrim Assembly member David Ford has said that the closure of the railway line between Antrim and Lisburn will be a disaster for public transport in Northern Ireland. The Alliance Leader, who has campaigned for the retention of the service, said he had not given up the fight for the line yet. The matter […]
ALLIANCE Finance Spokesman Seamus Close MLA has slammed the Government for attempting to kill off public debate on metering as a possible basis for water charges in the future. Mr Close accused Minister Angela Smith of “unduly influencing the jury” in her consultation paper ‘The Reform of Water and Sewerage Services in Northern Ireland’, which […]
The Alliance Party held its 33rd annual Conference on 8 March 2003, at the Dunadry Hotel, Antrim. In his Conference speech, David Ford MLA discussed the current international situation in Iraq, as well as the current state of the political process in Northern Ireland when Mr Ford reminded the audience of Alliance’s firm belief in […]
The best possible education of people is both a principal duty of, and an immeasurable benefit to, any civilised society, and therefore I invite this conference to join me in deploring the rising levels of student debt and the resulting disincentive to continue in education post-school. Alliance condemns the failure of the Assembly and the […]
Cllr Naomi Long has called for an end to tuition fees and is calling for assurances from the Government that top-up fees will not be introduced for Northern Ireland students. Proposing a motion at the Alliance Party Conference, she also called for the abolition of tuition fees and the introduction of additional targeted bursaries aimed […]
Delegates, I fully support this resolution as put forward by our Deputy leader Eileen Bell. The failure to reach any form of agreement or understanding at Hillsborough was not so much the fault of the two Governments, as it was the reluctance of unionists and republicans to step away from hard-line positions. At times they […]
On 27 May 2002, the then Minister of Finance and Personnel announced that a public consultation exercise on the review of the rating system had commenced. What a pity that the parties in the Executive agreed to restrict the review to an exercise in tinkering instead of radical and progressive thinking. What a pity that […]
Alliance supports international law and the United Nations. Any war against Iraq must be authorised by the United Nations Security Council and after the UN weapons inspectors have found that there are weapons of mass destruction likely to be used against the rest of the world. In the previous Gulf War, Iraq invaded Kuwait, so […]
In proposing the motion, Stephen Farry stated: “Alliance is not a pacifist party. We do accept that there are some circumstances in which the use of military force can be justified in the last resort. “Alliance is an internationalist party, a pro-international rule of law party, and a pro-U.N. party. “War, and the other use […]
Chairperson, Distinguished Visitors, Assembly members, Councillors and fellow Party Members: Good morning and welcome to our Annual Conference for 2003. Not for the first time, we meet in interesting political circumstances. It is now almost five years since the Belfast Agreement was signed on behalf of almost – but not all – of Northern Ireland’s […]