There has been much huffing and puffing in Stormont over the Northern Ireland Budget, but the MLAs need not fear any house being blown down. The antics of the SDLP have revealed astonishing hypocrisy.
After congratulating their sole Minister, Margaret Ritchie, for voting in favour of the budget at the Executive table, they opportunistically proceeded to vote against it knowing too well that there was no chance it would be defeated.
Mark Durkan cited the imminent introduction of water charges as well as other issues as reasons for voting against the budget. But it was Durkan who, as the then Minster for Finance, had agreed to introduce water charges and privatise the water service in the last Assembly in 2002. ‘Opposition’ also came from the Alliance Party because of the lack of a mention of “a shared future.” True, there has been no attempt in this Budget to, for example, promote integrated education. However, Alliance do not object to the fundamental economics of the Budget. Alliance spokesman, Stephen Farry, illustrated his party’s position clearly when he stated on TV that he was not opposed to taking tough decisions as he “has voted for school closures” in the past.
In fact this budget is a continuation of the neo-liberal policies contained within the last budget presented by Durkan in 2001. It represents further attacks on public services, job cuts, privatisation and hand-outs to big business, but this time with the DUP and Sinn Fein jointly wielding the axe. Every government department will see cuts through 5% “efficiency” savings on administration costs on top of 3% savings on resource budgets over the next three years. These so-called efficiency targets will lead to thousands of jobs being lost and further cuts in much needed services.
700 jobs in the Social Security Agency are to go, which will lead to people having to wait longer to receive benefits. The SSA is already struggling to cope after 674 jobs were cut during the last Comprehensive Spending Review. Other departments will see big job losses. The Department of Education will see 300 job cuts, Northern Ireland Housing Executive 400 jobs and the Roads Service will see 239 jobs cut. Aparty from cuts resulting from the “efficiency” targets, an estimated 1,700 jobs are to go as a result of the Review of Public Administration (RPA) and the Comprehensive Spending Review.
These cuts will have devastating effects on the poorest sections of society. The tragic rise in suicides in Northern Ireland has led to parents demanding action be taken and resources provided to assist those vulnerable to poor mental health. This budget will see 500 less staff in Community Health Care than recommended by the Bamford Review of Mental Health and Learning Disability. Other plans such as to expand local self-harm mentoring schemes and measures to cut hospital waiting times are now in doubt.
Other services under attack include libraries, which will effectively see a 2% cut in funding, Youth Service which provides educational assistance to young people who are outside the school system will see a budget cut of 4.8% this year, and social care. The ‘extra’ money given to supply social housing will only provide 5,250 homes, which is nowhere near what is needed to solve the housing crisis. Housing waiting lists are at their highest level ever – 20,000 households are in housing stress, while 9,573 homeless people are awaiting housing.
The so-called extra money for health is a mirage. In reality the increase in funding since the draft budget is 0.1%. This means health will see an increase of 3.9% compared to rises of 6% during the 90s. And this funding is conditional on the 3% efficiency targets being met!
There are winners in this budget though. £18bn will be handed to big business over the next 10 years through the Strategic Investment Board’s programme of privatisation of public services. £40m will be used to subsidise private companies through the funding of research at Northern Ireland universities. The details of water charges have yet to be agreed by the Executive, but it is clear that they will be introduced next year in some form. It also cannot be ruled out that more cuts could be added to this budget as the perfect storm of the US recession hits the finances of the London Treasury. A recession in the British economy will be disastrous for the Northern Ireland economy and real pressure will come to cut the subvention the Assembly receives from London.
This neo-liberal budget and the lack of any genuine opposition in the Assembly raises the urgent need for the building of a socialist alternative which can organise working class communities to fight these cuts and challenge the right-wing political consensus of the sectarian parties.
