THE STORMONT Assembly has unanimously voiced its concerns about British government plans to cut spending in Northern Ireland by up to £5 billion (€5.6 billion), and called for the Executive to protect vital public services.
Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson warned that last week’s spending cuts imposed from London could not be dramatically altered and had to be dealt with responsibly.
He told a special sitting of the Assembly, which was recalled from its mid-term recess: “[We] have to simply accept what has been handed down to us.”
Mr Wilson was speaking on a Sinn Féin-SDLP motion which recorded the Assembly’s concerns and called on him to address the issue.
Members backed the call for the funding issue to be addressed, but Mr Wilson used the debate to criticise those advocating a programme of opposition to the cuts.
Telling all parties to “get real”, he said Stormont had no power to alter chancellor George Osborne’s spending review, and ought to begin agreeing a strategy to take account of its implications.
“That means that the Executive have to agree a budget within the next couple of weeks, get it through the statutory process of consultation, and then get it here on the floor of the Assembly for debate and for decision,” he said.
“If we don’t do that, we will be failing in our duty,” Mr Wilson said. “Whether the cuts are necessary or not is not a matter for the house because we have to simply accept what has been handed down to us. I think as an Assembly we must use the hand that has been dealt to us in the best possible way.”
First Minister Peter Robinson estimates the spending cuts, welfare reductions and other provisions will cost the Northern Ireland economy some £5 billion over the next four-year period.
The SDLP used the debate to call for a social partnership model, like that in the Republic, to be adopted.
Sinn Féin insisted there was a viable alternative to the Conservative-Liberal Democrat plan to slash the massive UK deficit in the short term. Party president Gerry Adams said: “Let us focus on the assault by that government on public services, on lower- and middle-income families, on people on social welfare, and on the most vulnerable sections of our people.
“Let us get a positive consensus on that and agree on practical steps so that the Executive can take the lead in the fight-back and in mapping out a better way forward for those who depend upon us most,” he said.
Sinn Féin has published an alternative economic policy in a paper called There is a Better Way. The party advocates opposition to the cuts and examination of some restructuring and revenue-raising proposals.
SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie said simple opposition to cuts was not enough on its own.
“Those who say we should simply tell London the settlement is unacceptable – ‘try again David [Cameron] and George [Osborne]’ – are not living in the real world,” she said.
Alliance spokesman Chris Lyttle said it was imperative that parties “make a start now” on an agreed response to the cuts.
Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott said: “Whilst nobody supports cuts, I have become increasingly worried by the response of Sinn Féin, the SDLP and in some instances the First Minister, as outrage has turned to veiled threats about the security of these political institutions.”