At a particularly heated moment during the Budget debate, the SDLP's Alban Maginnis told the DUP Finance Minister Peter Robinson to "get some therapy". Mr Robinson wanted the member to withdraw the phrase "or be withdrawn". However the Deputy Speaker David McClarty was unable to come to his aid. Mr McClarty said he had been so busy calling for order that he didn't hear the remark. So it may now fall to the Speaker Willie Hay to rule whether it is parliamentary to tell a member to get some therapy.
Could the first victim of the new Victims Commission be a humble NI Executive press release? The Ulster Unionist Stephen Warke complained to me about the biographical material accompanying the first statement by the Commissioners designate because it described the brother of Commissioner Patricia MacBride as "an IRA volunteer" killed "whilst on active service". The unionist argued that the use of the term "volunteer" legitimised the IRA campaign and could be deeply offensive to victims.
But when I searched for the "Statement issued by the Commissioners Designate for Victims and Survivors" on the NI Executive site it had disappeared. All I could see was "WebEngine error: Page not found!"
I am not sure if the statement's disappearance is connected, but I can predict this will not be the last disagreement about terminology that the Victims Commission will have to deal with.
Which Sinn Feiner has been getting under the DUP North Antrim MLA's skin? He asks the Culture Minister if the practice by Sinn Fein of "gaelicising the names of members from a Unionist background, during exchanges in the Assembly, contributed to his conclusion that an Irish Language Act could prove divisive".
In response, Eamann Poots (sorry that was gratuitous...) says the practice did not influence his approach to the Irish Language Act, but does not help in developing the language in a depoliticised manner.
I have to admit that I tried to gaelicise "Mervyn Storey", but its Welsh purity has left my Irish language boffins stumped.
The DUP's Stephen Moutray wants to know what measures Sir Reg Empey has put in place to "prevent staff becoming ill". The Employment Minister gives him a long answer about his department's occupational health strategy. But I guess if Sir Reg had really got the business of preventing people becoming ill cracked, he might find another more lucrative niche in life, rather than holding down a job in this Executive
That's what Arlene Foster reckons it will cost over a period of 4 years to set up an Environmental Protection Agency. The Environment Minister has yet to announce her response to the recommendation, made by an independent team called in prior to the restoration of devolution, that such an agency should be created.
It's official. Arlene Foster has just told the Assembly that she is refusing Seymour Sweeney's application for a private visitor centre at the Giants Causeway. The minister has told the Assembly the proposal would have an adverse impact on the Causeway's World heritage site status as it would adversely affect the character of the area. If she had done this in the first place just think of the acres of newsprint that could have been saved.
UPDATE: A reasonably lively debate followed the Environment Minister's announcement. The best one liner came from the UUP's Danny Kennedy - "It would appear that the DUP have left Mr Sweeney on his tod."
I'm 
