It's day two of the 2024 Isle of Man Government Conference.
Siobhán Fletcher sits down with our political correspondent - and this week our self-proclaimed government conference correspondent - Phil Gawne to find out what happened today:
Manx Newscast
Manx Newscast: Debriefing the Government Conference: Day Two
So we're here at day two of the government conference at the Comers Hotel and it's now sort of the lunch break here. You mentioned the sandwiches yesterday you're gonna go and get some? Well, I only got a few yesterday because I was busy interviewing ministers and various other people. So yeah, it would be nice if there's one left. Okay, perfect. So you've been here all of this morning. What's gone on today? Have there been any big announcements, any shocks? That was the first thing I asked yesterday. How has it been today? Well, possibly that the surprising thing for me was the presentation from the Treasury Minister, which didn't actually tell us an awful lot more than we already knew. It was kind of rehearsing or revisiting discussions that had already been had in relation to the budgets, things like this. So we didn't learn anything really new. I didn't think from the Treasury Minister. Maybe he'll be pleased to hear that. Well, again, his summary at the end was I'm not here to make big announcements. If I've got big announcements to make, I'll make them to Tim Mould. I wasn't convinced of what we were getting out of that particular presentation. Andy Ralph's, on the other hand, the relatively new, anyway, chief executive officer of Ironman Government gave an interesting presentation followed by workshops in relation to the future shape of public service delivery. It's an incredibly difficult thing to do that he's been tasked effectively with modernizing, I suppose, streamlining the public service, making it more responsive. And that's a hard thing to do. Again, various questioners have pointed out that 25% of the island's employed people work for government. So that's an awful lot of people. And you've got to try and change the whole structure of the system that those people are working for. Everyone will have their own little ideas about how their particular area should work and somehow has a new head of the service. Andy Ralph's is going to have to find a way in which he can turn the whole thing around. So it's a big, big task, but he certainly has the enthusiasm to deliver it. And he also had a few little jokes in his presentation too, which is, I think it's always a positive sign of if people have had a bit of humour into what they're saying. So that was good. And then after that, we obviously had a presentation from Justice and Home Affairs Minister Jane Paul Wilson. She was talking about keeping our island safe. That led on to, we've just actually come down from a panel Q&A, which kind of reverted back to this talk and got a bit heated. I mean, did she make any big declarations there? She was sort of talking about strengthening borders and things. Wasn't she the common travel area in particular? Yeah. And again, out of the actual conference, I had a chat with the Chief Minister, actually an interview with the Chief Minister, and he was pointing to the fact that there has been quite a lot of concern across the island about some issues surrounding immigration. And this is, effectively, Council of Ministers demonstrating that it is responding, it is listening to what people are saying. And whereas I'm not convinced there was an awful lot new in what the Minister was saying, that certainly the Minister is demonstrating that the things that government has in place are in place and that they are trying to make sure that the services are improved. We had a very revealing presentation from the immigration service head, head of Customs and Immigration Sandra Simpson. Again, some of the questioning that came from the floor demonstrated that there are people who are working on the Isle of Man who rely on being able to travel. They're struggling in relation to the visas that are presented to them. So there are changes that are required there. Lots of concern from the floor about where the actual people coming into the Isle of Man, how is that controlled? And that was certainly some fairly heated discussion about that, about why government isn't doing more. And of course, government, the response is it's complicated. There are lots of issues you have to deal with as a common travel area and you can't impose extra standards on people travelling from the common travel area. You've got to be careful how you deal with things like that. So yeah, interesting morning's discussions both inside the conference and those discussions I had outside as well. Perfect. And then the last one just before the break was about inward migration. But again, that was very much a report that we got in July and actually I wrote our article for Max Radio and it was very much what was in that report but being presented to the public. So we've not had any major shocks today so far but you're looking forward to then this afternoon. The Chief Minister closing things out. Yes, yes and I've had a little bit of insight I think from the Chief Minister and certainly the interview that I've done with the Chief will play out on one of the prospective programs. Basically the Chief Minister is keen to be able to demonstrate that he is delivering, that his government is delivering for the men's public and you see you know we revisited the concern that he has in relation to the overspending and the health department. Again I sort of pushed the Chief a bit on this and said that you know is there a future in the Council of Ministers for the current Health Minister and the Chief Minister gave the Health Minister his full backing and said yes of course. So hopefully these tensions that appear to have rippled to the surface are merely the inevitable tensions of trying to square circles when it comes to limited government finances and Council of Ministers will be back on track and rare and to go when they get back in October. Thank you for making it to the end of the Manxeradian newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. May I politely suggest you might want to subscribe to this and a wide range of Manxeradia podcasts at your favourite podcast provider so our best bits will magically appear on your smartphone. Thank you. (upbeat music) You