Other News In Brief

Man Convicted Of Benefit Fraud

A man has been convicted for claiming benefits he was not entitled to at Craigavon Crown Court.

Ian Philpott from Lisburn claimed Jobseekers Allowance and Rates totalling £22,098 while failing to declare employment. He was given a six month prison sentence suspended for 18 months.

He is also required to repay any outstanding money wrongfully obtained to the Social Security Agency.

NI Energy Firm To Cut Gas Prices By 7.7%

A NI energy firm is to cut its gas prices in the 'Ten Towns' licence area, just outside Belfast, by 7.7%.

Firmus Energy said the price reduction will come into effect on 01 April 2016.

Michael Scott, managing director for Firmus Energy, said: "We have more than 28,000 customers in the Ten Towns area and continually strive to keep our natural gas prices as low and as stable as possible for our customers.

"Along with our excellent customer service we monitor all costs and global wholesale fuel prices on a daily basis to ensure our tariffs offer the best value possible and any savings are passed on as soon as we can to our customers."

Enterprise, Trade and Investment Minister Jonathan Bell welcomed the announcement.

He said: "In recent weeks, we have seen the announcement of a number of electricity and gas price reductions and, while these will impact mostly on domestic and smaller business customers, it is likely larger energy users will also be seeing benefits from falls in wholesale energy prices on world markets."

MLAs Hope For Development Regarding FFA Movement

Trevor Lunn and Stewart Dickson, two of Northern Ireland's Alliance Party MLAs, have said they hope a meeting of NI Executive today, 10 March, will "produce movement on the working group on the issue of terminations in the cases of fatal foetal abnormality."

Speaking ahead of the Executive meeting, the Alliance MLAs criticised Health Minister Simon Hamilton, saying he had delayed details about the group, which was originally announced in January, for long enough. At the time, Mr Hamilton said the group was designed to make recommendations on how the issue of FFA could be addressed.

A fatal foetal abnormality diagnosis is when doctors believe an unborn child has a terminal condition and as a result will die in the womb or shortly after birth.

In a statement, Mr Lunn said: "The vote on our amendments around FFA was almost a month ago. Before it took place, the DUP announced it would establish a working group on FFA. Still we wait for it to appear.

"To not even have an idea of its make-up or how it will operate this far on indicates the entire exercise was nothing more than a ploy to get through the election without having to tackle the issue."

Mr Dickson added: "Tomorrow's meeting of the Executive is another opportunity for the matter to be prioritised.

"The only reason any progress has been made on this matter at Executive is because Justice Minister David Ford raised it there, as the DUP did not want it on the agenda. We need progress on it and we need it now, so the promises made to Sarah Ewart and others can be fulfilled."

(CD)