We would be surprised if you hadn't heard what happened in the first Tynwald after the summer recess - but just in case, Phil Gawne takes you through the highlights.
Probably one to listen to with a strong cup of tea...
Manx Newscast
Manx Newscast - October Tynwald in Brief
Timball members seemed to have a habit of not disappointing us, and despite a fairly unpromising looking October, Timballed or the paper, not that much by way of exciting items there, a few statements were about the only, well yes, a few statements and a motion in relation to incentives and disincentives for inward migration to the Isle of Man, the rest of the order paper was fairly bland, a few motions down from the backbenchers, particularly from the policy alliance, Julie Edge, Chris Thomas and Claire Christian, but very little to capture the imagination one might have thought. Even on the question paper, questions were fairly mild and specific in nature. Until, of course, we had a urgent question, Tim Glover put down an urgent question wanting to know about the overspend and the health department, and that might have been expected, resulted in significant numbers of members wishing to question the health minister, and the health minister was probably more fulsome in his answers than perhaps many might have expected. Little did they know what was about to happen, other questions were answered, we got, I think it was too, possibly to question 14, maybe 15, and then maybe a little bit further actually, and then Timmold was asked at about quarter to three, because of course Timmold having trialled an hour for their dinnertime break, 1230 to 130, have now reverted to their old dinnertime break, which is one till 230, and the reason for that is not that they like to suggest their food at dinnertime, but because they often cram in lots and lots of meetings over that period. So, come quarter to three, a vote was put, would we extend question timely, the decision taken wasn't, no we wouldn't, so everyone expected us to move on to item four on the order paper, which is the autumn statement from the chief minister, but lo and behold the president gives permission to Laurie Hooper to give a personal statement, and by golly what a personal statement it was, as he explained to me shortly after the personal statement, at the same time as giving the personal statement he pressed send on an email to the chief minister in which he had tended his resignation, the personal speech did not hold back it is fair to say, it was, it was, well it was, it was full on, and the chief minister was left in no doubt as to what the treasury minister actually thought of him, he said things like, we need steadfast commitment and long-term views, the chief minister did not welcome Laurie Hooper's views on the NHS, the chief minister was looking to privatise the health service, Coleman would not commit to free at the point of use health service, the chief minister was undermining manks care and the department of health and social care minister, and yeah, you were left in no doubt as to what the chief minister or how the chief minister was viewed by the outgoing health minister Laurie Hooper, and of course the unfortunate thing for the chief minister in terms of timing was of course he then had to go straight in to giving his autumn statement which would have been prepared in the absence of knowledge that the health minister was about to resign and throw the chief minister under a bus whilst doing so, the chief minister responded in a reasonably polite fashion thanking the health minister for his service and then moved on to his statement, but having slept on it, an opportunity arose for the chief minister to be much more forceful which indeed he was in relation to a debate that Chris Thomas had put down which was in relation to the council of ministers looking into the overspend into manks care and a range of various options on that, the chief minister was the second to speak and it is fair to say that he laid in to the outgoing health minister in a pretty strong fashion, there was certainly no attempt at repairing the damaged relationship, it was very very clear and I think to be fair the chief minister was probably quite upset and hurt by the way in which the health minister had chosen to depart and the chief minister very firmly and strongly denied any intention to privatise the NHS on the Isle of Man, he also released a quite damning report about the state of manks care's finances in which a review had been undertaken into the systems and the operation of the systems that governed finance in manks care and it said that words to the effect of it wasn't fit for purpose, so that report was a report that had a date of April 2024 written on it, the chief minister said that that report had not been presented to council of ministers, to be fair it was a fairly detailed report, possibly not high level enough for council of ministers to say, but it was a very damning report in which it said that manks care's finances were uncertain and the information that manks care, the financial information manks care was getting, the control over that financial information was at best quite weak, so the chief minister reasonably suggested in response to the chief, to the outgoing health minister that well, if you're going to hide these sorts of reports, don't be too surprised if council of ministers doesn't fully get behind you on your first attempt to persuade them, the view as far as the chief minister's concern is, council of ministers may at some point accept some of the conclusions of the health minister, but at this stage they didn't feel they had had enough information to fully understand what all the issues were, so all other talk and consideration in Timmold this week was pretty much overshadowed by what went on between the chief minister and his former health minister, there were many other contributions, some contributions very very firmly nailing their colours to the mast of saying we believe at a health service which is free at the point of delivery, others were pointing out that well actually we already pay for a number of things in the health service, we pay for prescriptions, we pay for glasses and actually that reminds me I need another pair of glasses, we pay for ear tests and things like this, so it's not entirely free at the point of delivery as things stand and what we also know is that we have an enormous gap between the funding available for the bank's care and the funding that they say that they need, so I don't think Timmold could be described or either of the contributions chief minister or indeed health minister could be described as how to win friends and influence people, maybe they would be influencing but the winning friends perhaps not, and as a result of the chief minister's contribution then on the Wednesday morning Mr Hooper went to Twitter as he does and says absolutely incredulous behaviour from someone who is supposed to be a leader, not unexpected though and hopefully it shows what I've been up against, are his ministers willing to stand behind someone who behaves like this, so that was Lorie Hooper's response, it is interesting to see that there was no vote of no confidence in the government, one might have thought that if one was coming the time to do it would have been shortly after Minister Hooper's departure but it certainly I think came as quite a shock to everyone in Timmold, there were very very few members that Lorie Hooper has actually tipped off that he was about to resign too, so there we are, that is the crux of what went on in Timmold, there were lots of other issues that were debated obviously, the debate that I mentioned of that Chris Thomas had put forward in terms of health service reform, that was pretty much amended by an amendment David Ashford had prepared and from what I gather this amendment had been prepared certainly with discussion with the Council of Ministers and in effect what was decided was that Timmold is of the opinion that the HSC should review the operation of the current legislation with a view to amending or replacing existing legislation in order to provide the opportunity for further reform and clarify the governance and division of responsibilities of the Department of Health and Social Care and Mankscare with drafting principles and be brought for debate at the January 2025 setting of Timmold and further that the Council of Ministers should ensure the current framework within Mankscare and DHS see to be reviewed to ensure that healthcare professions are fully engaged to secure continuous improvement of healthcare, undertake a review of how the executive members of Mankscare are appointed and employed including how individual performances assessed, managed and reviewed on an annual basis and undertake a review of how the operation of Schedule 1 of the Mankscare Act 2021 has worked in practice in particular the membership of the Board with a view to whether political representation on the Board is required and the results of such review should be submitted to Timmold for debate no later than March 2025 so plenty to do. The outgoing Health Minister's view on that debate for what it's worth now is that the very last thing we need is another review and actually we need to just bite the bullet and find additional income so that the health service particularly Mankscare can continue to be funded in the way that it feels it needs to be. So yes that was the most lively element to the Timmold. We had of course the autumn statement from the Chief Minister which I think the biggest laugh in Timmold this week was when Jason Murhouse got up and said I really don't understand what this statement is for and I suspect that the laughter was because many members wondered the same thing. Chief Minister had given the commitment to make this autumn statement and this was a kind of a state-of-the-nation address but it was deemed by many to be a rather bleak assessment and that perhaps Chief Minister might have been more inclined to talk up things than paint such a bleak picture. The finance update from the Treasury Minister was as interesting for what it didn't say as it was for what it did although there was a fair bit in it. The sorts of things that were in there which will certainly trouble some people were that my card the way in which most, well a lot of elderly people I would guess, do get their benefits whether that be pensions or other benefits. Fewer and fewer people are actually using my card most are plumping for getting their money paid directly into their bank accounts, ditching my card and this will happen at the end of the next financial year will save half a million pounds so you can kind of see why they might wish to do that. Treasury Minister said inflation and that the budget time was running at 7.2 percent. It's now down to 2.2 percent but the savings that might have been expected from that drop in inflation are certainly not being seen as yet. The Treasury Minister of course focused on Manxcare. He pointed to the near 17 million overspend. Manxcare he suggested should be able to find about 10 million of savings for that but 7 million would remain unfunded which basically means that there would need to be a supplementary vote for that extra funding. He reiterated that the UK triple lock was to be removed in relation to pensions but they would find alternative ways to keep up with inflation. That's felt a little bit like trying to have your cake and eating it. The replacement of tax of the 2 percent tax increase is under, it's harder to find than than thought so this was basically a health care levy of some kind was going to be imposed to replace the 2 percent tax but the Treasury Minister felt that that was going to be more difficult than had initially been thought. We've got to examine carefully how you can avoid the embarrassment of increasing stealth taxes. This is my note. Basically the Treasury Minister is going to bring an order to 10 world which automatically increases all the the charges that government places for various services. It will automatically increase those by inflation. There was some cryptic comments about looking at child benefit. It wasn't entirely clear what was being said there and perhaps the bit of good news and it's always good to have some good news isn't it? The OECD tax rule changes which are going to affect all international businesses will probably result in an extra £25 million worth of tax take from 2027 and knowing Treasury that will be a conservative estimate. Treasury doesn't tend to over over promise on these sorts of things but we'll see. So that was the Treasury Minister's statement but as I say most of the comment, most of the comment I got from members was really about the departure of the health minister and of course now the speculation is rife as to who may take over from Laurie Hooper. There are a range of options being presented but David Ashford has firmly ruled himself out from that role. It was reported that the hurried meeting had taken place with the Chief Minister and David Ashford yesterday but the David Ashford was very clear that he would not be going back into the health department. So at that point just as we've completed item 13 and began item, well it was back then to item 6 which is the Councillor Biness's report on inward migration incentives and disincentives. That's where I had to cut out a tenmled because I had other responsibilities to attend to so perhaps Christian Jones who took over will give you an update of what else happened in October tenmled. I doubt - you never say never - but I doubt he'll have anything quite as headline grabbing as the departure of the former health minister Laurie Hooper. Thank you for making it to the end of the Banks Radio Newscast. You are obviously someone with exquisite taste. 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