Primary school pupils in the North are to receive souvenir Queen's Golden Jubilee medals after a DUP motion to that effect was passed in the Assembly yesterday.
However, the Education Minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, said that his department would not be paying for the medals. Events such as the jubilee should not be used to create divisions, he insisted.The motion, from Mr Maurice Morrow (DUP), was passed by 26 votes to 11 after heated debate. Given that people were supposed to be living in an era of equality, this would be a fitting way of demonstrating parity of esteem, Mr Morrow said.