Assembly spending review reaction

Assembly members were called back from recess to discuss the way forward after the spending review announcement. The special debate focused on how the cuts will affect Northern Ireland and put the main parties’ views on record.

DUP
Peter Robinson

Our allocation was set not only for the £18 billion, but that the capital budget for policing and justice would take account of us at least being able to deliver those specific projects. All of that has gone. This is a major challenge. People do not want grandstanding on this issue. They want us to be able to deal with these matters and to do so effectively and collectively.

What appears as numbers on a page today will be real jobs tomorrow, and there is no greater economic and social devastation to a family than the loss of a job and an income.

Sinn Féin
Gerry Adams

The North now faces a reduction of 6.9 per cent in the current expenditure budget and 37 per cent in capital expenditure over the next four years. The Tory Government have also reneged on the St Andrews commitment to £18 billion for infrastructure. That is entirely and absolutely unacceptable, and we need to face up to that. Our party is up for fighting it and for moving forward in a constructive way with all the other parties.

UUP
Tom Elliott

I do not think that anybody in this House supports cuts. Nobody in this House supports the increasing level of fuel duty. Probably nobody in the House supports the increase in VAT from 17.5 per cent to 20 per cent. However, as some members explained, that is the reality and something that we must grapple with over the coming months and years. I hope that, over the coming weeks, we will see co-operation from all parties in the Executive in bringing forward an agreed Budget.

SDLP
Margaret Ritchie

David Cameron claims that that is fair and that the Government have done the right thing in the right way. I do not think that they have done the right thing in any case, but they most certainly have not done it in the right way. They represent an old-fashioned onslaught on the poor.

Alliance
Chris Lyttle

Like it or not, political posturing has wasted money and opportunities to improve the efficiency of public services in this region. We needed RPA, we need ESA and we need reform of arm’s-length bodies. Without that, we will continue to fail the public, who expect the Assembly to make decisions that will help our society by delivering improved opportunities for education, jobs, health and support for the most vulnerable people.

Green
Brian Wilson

Only a masochist would introduce such cuts into our economy at a time when we are still in recession with falling house prices, rising unemployment and stagnant growth. It is madness to cut back on spending at a time when the local economy is in recession. The Northern Ireland economy is extremely fragile and cannot withstand further cuts.