Four Northern Ireland Ministers have joined forces to present an interdepartmental consultative document, entitled Unlocking Creativity, which aims to set up a strategic framework for the arts.
The Minister of Culture, Arts and Leisure, Mr Michael McGimpsey, said the document was designed to stimulate discussion and facilitate the formulation of an interdepartmental plan for the cultural sector.
The Minister of Education, Mr Martin McGuinness, the Minister of Further and Higher Education, Mr Sean Farren, and Sir Reg Empey, the Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, also endorsed the blueprint as "a prime example of working together for the common good".
Meanwhile, the Minister of the Environment, Mr Sam Foster, has called on everybody in Northern Ireland to play their part in trying to reduce the number of road deaths which has risen from 115 last year to 143 so far this year.
While saying the long-term trend in road deaths had fallen, with about 350 people killed on the roads annually 25 years ago, Mr Foster said he was very concerned that there had been a sharp increase in the number of drivers dying in accidents.
"I will ensure my Department continues to get the road safety message across and I am investing more resources in road safety education in our schools and in road safety publicity through the media . . . But government can only do so much. Everyone who gets behind the wheel of a car is driving a potentially lethal weapon," Mr Foster added. In other business the Enterprise Committee was told that the North's bread industry was facing imminent collapse due to prohibitive costs demanded by British supermarket giants.
A delegation from the Northern Ireland Bakery Council told the committee that the industry had shed 700 jobs in the last two years and urgently needed the Assembly's support.
Meanwhile, a delegation of the Committee of Members' Interests of Dail Eireann, led by its chairman, Mr Tony Killeen TD, is to visit Stormont today.
It will speak of its role and operations to the Assembly's Committee on Standards and Privileges.