 The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)Health PolicyThe DUP supports measures to provide more health service staff. We want to see more nursing staff trained in the province and the number of general practice posts increased. In this light we feel that incentives should be considered that might encourage staff to remain in Northern Ireland within the NHS.
We want to see administrative bureaucracy decreased which can not only save money but streamline decision making to create a more efficient system.
We support the introduction of targeted strategies with an end to knee-jerk spending. Audit trails are important to ensure transparency of where money is spent. Also it is vital that any Minister is fully accountable to the Northern Ireland Assembly.
We recommend integrating related services like general practice, pharmacies, dentists and opticians at multi-disciplinary primary care centres. We also recognise that the problems in the health service go beyond acute services and we want to see improvements in community care, particularly in the field of mental health, respite care and the needs of the disabled.
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Education PolicyThe DUP is opposed to the destruction of Northern Ireland’s grammar schools. We will oppose any attempts to introduce the Burns report which would simply replace academic selection by either economic or selection by social connection.
We believe that all pupils have differing needs and it stands to reason that a range of schools offering differing educational experiences is more appropriate to allow all pupils to develop. Therefore, pupils who show ability in vocational subjects can receive the best training at schools specialising in those subjects and those who are more suited to academic subjects can attend schools specialising in this.
We also want to end the inequality of funding whereby Integrated and Irish Medium schools require a lower number of pupils to meet the threshold for funding while many rural Controlled schools are closed.
We want to see more money spent on children and schools rather than on administration and bureaucracy. Environment PolicyThe European Union lays down many of the guidelines and directives regarding pollution and environmental protection. Often these directives require expenditure for upgrades of sewage and waste disposal. We believe that Northern Ireland has suffered for many years from underinvestment in our infrastructure for such projects and we see a need for an investment in these infrastructure projects which can bring us into line with requirements.
Another major issue with the Department of the Environment is the planning system which is in need of reform. We want to see faster and more efficient results delivered and a system of third party appeals introduced which gives rights to objectors but does not allow frivolous claims to delay development.
The DOE has the power to raise finance through the sale of number plates and we support the greater liberalisation of these sales in order to raise revenue.
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