The Regional Development Minister, Danny Kennedy, should make his department more efficient rather than cut front line services, according to local Conservatives’ spokesman, Johnny Andrews.
“Danny Kennedy is threatening to turn lights off right across Northern Ireland, rather than get to grips with inefficiencies in his department”, Johnny noted. “Consistently, the default option for ministers is to cut services and front-line jobs, rather than do the hard work of tackling waste and bureaucracy. It’s a strategy which makes no sense and it means the people of Northern Ireland suffer for Stormont’s incompetence.”
“Hard-working people have already begun to lose their jobs, as Executive departments cut back front-line services provided by private contractors. The reason is simply that it is easier to target these workers and the services they provide, rather than get to grips with changing long-term working practices and making government departments more efficient.”
“Right across the Stormont Executive there has been a litany of waste and squandered taxpayers’ money. There are countless inefficiencies and bad working practices which could be eradicated. It is absurd that every time a minister needs to find money he or she immediately starts to cut important services, when 100s of millions of pounds have been wasted. It is also absolutely indicative of the Executive’s inability to take difficult decisions or tackle the hard work which needs to be done.”