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00:00Thank you, Sian. I call Timothy Garston.
00:02Thank you, Principal Deputy Speaker. I rise today to welcome the amendments to the Standing
00:08Orders which seem to me a necessary acknowledgement that MLAs are people too who require time
00:14off for bereavement and other sensitive reasons. There's one issue I would like to have clarity
00:20from the Chairperson's Committee on. I received correspondence last month from the Committee
00:25on Procedures which indicated looking at proxy voting for long-term illness,
00:29bereavement and absence on official business, which you have already acknowledged in your opening
00:36remarks. Chairperson, can you confirm that MLAs should not and indeed would not be able to take
00:42advantage of these provisions if they go on holiday while the Assembly is in session? I
00:48ask that in the context where just last week a Minister was on holiday and was therefore unable
00:53to fulfil her duties in this House, even though the Assembly is in recess next week. I want the
00:59record of this debate to be clear that there is no provision in this amendment for any MLA,
01:05be they party leaders, Ministers or lowly backbenchers like myself,
01:09to vote by proxy while they are sitting at the pollside.
01:15Okay, I call Gerry Carl.