Principal deputy speaker Caitríona Ruane adjourns the assembly and that's all from us on the assembly's first ever designated Opposition Day.

You can catch up on today's happenings with Stormont Today with Mark Carruthers tonight at 23:20 on BBC Two.

Or, if you prefer the wireless to the telly, tune in to BBC Radio Ulster's Today At The Assembly, where Jayne McCormack will have a full round-up for you shortly after 22:00.

Join us tomorrow morning at 10:30 for more live coverage of the Northern Ireland Assembly, including a debate on the draft BBC Charter.

Jenny Palmer of the UUP winds for the motion, saying successive ministers at the Department for Work and Pensions "have said they are not for moving on this issue".

In fact, she adds, the current minister has indicated that "all pensioner benefits are under review".

The motion passes on an oral vote.

Communities Minister Paul Givan says the state pension age reforms are "a result of the UK meeting its obligations under the European Union".

"Part of the result of being in the union was the drive which has disadvantaged women in respect of this issue," he says.

He rejects suggestions from the SDLP that Northern Ireland should "break parity" with the rest of the UK on the issue.

"I think it would be entirely reckless when it comes to the use of public funding," the minister says.

As a society "we need to embed a gendered impact study on wider economic decisions that are made in the wider economy", the Green Party's Claire Bailey says.

"This is an absolute shameful treatment of women," she says.

The motion has been brought before the assembly after hundreds of thousands of women fighting against delays to their state pension had their hopes dashed earlier this year.

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Many women born between April 1951 and 1960 claimed they were not aware that their pension age was being raised by up to six years.

That left many of them saying they were left without enough money to live on, and not enough time to make alternative arrangements.

Colin McGrath says some women were given only a year's notice of the changes.

"When it was introduced in 1995 it took HMRC a full 14 years before they wrote out and told people about the changes," the SDLP MLA says.

Naomi Long of the Alliance Party also backs the calls for fair transitional pension arrangements for women.

However, she questions the value of using "this much-vaunted Opposition Day" to bring a second motion on another subject over which the executive has no control.

"I doubt that that will have the executive quaking in their boots," she says.

Emma Pengelly of the DUP backs the Ulster Unionists' motion.

She says "women who are single, separated, or divorced are particularly hard hit, trying to survive on jobseekers' [allowance] alone and with little option but a few hours of unpaid work".

Image source, Getty Images

Sinn Féin's Jennifer McCann pays tribute to the women who are campaigning against the way in which the pension changes are being carried out.

"A lot of these women have been low earners throughout their lives simply because they have maybe been in part-time jobs because of family responsibilities," she says.

Ulster Unionist Andy Allen brings his party's motion on the impact on women of changes to the state pension.

He explains how the legislation in question goes back to 1993, when the then chancellor Ken Clarke announced that men's and women's pension ages would be equalised between 2010 and 2020.

This was to be done on the basis of "financial stability and also equality".

Mr Allen explains that, after changes made in 2011, "it was only shortly before their 60th birthday many women learned that they would not be able to draw their pension at 60, with some having to wait until they were 66 to receive their pension".

Seventy members voted on the Sinn Féin amendment to the motion, with 48 in approval of it and 22 against.

The SDLP motion as amended is passed on an oral vote.

SDLP MLA Colin McGrath concludes the debate on his party's motion, and says his colleagues will not support the Sinn Féin amendment.

"We don't want to confuse this issue - this is not about broadband," he says.

"If we ended up with super broadband right across the whole of the north, we'd still have bank branches closing."

The house divides over the amendment.

Sinn Féin's Linda Dillon winds on her party's amendment to the motion, saying: "Banks can talk the talk about consumer focus, but when it boils right down to it it's all about the profit."

Image source, Getty Images

The "new age of technology" has not reached many rural areas, she adds, claiming that internet banking is not an alternative for many people.

She finishes by saying that "many, many years of neglect" over infrastructure in Northern Ireland have left their "mark".

Economy Minister Simon Hamilton says how customers do their banking has changed, telling the chamber that the Bank Of Ireland says as little as 2% of transactions by its customers are done in branches.

"The nature of their business is changing" he says.

Image source, Getty Images

Mr Hamilton points out that the regulation of financial services is a matter still overseen by the Westminster government.

But he says a protocol requiring banks to look at putting in place alternative arrangements when considering closures of the last branches in particular towns does not apply in Northern Ireland.

"I would encourage our banks to ensure that they take informed decisions that take full account of the likely impact on local and particularly rural communities," he concludes.

Ulster Unionist Steve Aiken says his party will support the motion, quoting figures from the Consumer Council For Northern Ireland that show that by February next year the "big four" banks will have closed 77 branches in the last four years, 31% of the network.

He adds: "We all understand that individual banks will have to make their decisions on branch closures for their own commercial reasons, but for some of us it does smack of issues to do with profit."

The South Antrim MLA asks Economy Minister Simon Hamilton to outline what the executive can do "in mitigating the effects" of rural branch closures.

Banking "can't be seen in isolation" of other services, like access to GPs and care services, Sinn Féin's Declan McAleer says.

Image source, PA

"It's our duty to speak up to make banks see their social responsibilities," the West Tyrone MLA adds, "and do whatever we can to prevent the decline and decimation of services in our local areas."

Banks, he says, need to "reciprocate the loyalty" rural customers have given to them.

Customers "stayed loyal" to banks during the financial crisis but "now those same customers are being abandoned", the Alliance Party's Kellie Armstrong says.

"Where there is market failure, there needs to be intervention from government," the Strangford representative adds.

She says an older generation of customers "do not trust" online banking, asking: "What alternative is available for them?"

UUP MLA Rosemary Barton asks how many MLAs would be prepared to "endure" a "50 or 60-mile round trip" several times a week to transport cash to a bank.

"Very few, I assume," she says.

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She says banks have to change from their "single-mindedness" and "do not want the bother of providing a service to rural customers".

"The excuse that customers are doing their banking by the internet is not acceptable."

She adds that the matter is a "gigantic issue" that the executive has not addressed.

Banking services in rural communities are used "from the cradle to the grave", says Thomas Buchanan of the DUP.

He says small businesses are now having "extreme difficulty" in securing meetings with bank bosses about services available to them to as a result of the loss of branches in their areas.

He says internet banking "simply doesn't work" in rural areas and villages, where people do not have adequate access to broadband.

Caoimhe Archibald of Sinn Féin proposes an amendment to the motion, calling for the minister to commit to a programme that identities to "pockets of areas with poor broadband or mobile coverage and hold providers to account".

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"A targeted action plan should be developed to deliver at least basic broadband over a set period of time to all areas," she adds.

She says broadband and mobile coverage are "no longer luxury commodities but necessary utilities like water and electricity".

On the agenda now is an SDLP motion on the closure of rural banks.

It calls on Economy Minister Simon Hamilton to encourage banks to maintain rural branches and prevent further closures.

Richie McPhillips brings the motion, referring to recently announced Bank Of Ireland closures, including in Belleek in his Fermanagh and South Tyrone constituency, which he says will hit those in rural communities hard.

"Staff, customers and businesses have been left completely in the dark," he says.

"The assembly needs to make a clear statement that we will not sit back and allow the gradual erosion of services through stealth," he adds.

Ninety-four members vote on the Sinn Féin amendment, with 59 in favour and 35 against.

The amended motion passes on an oral vote.