The Conservatives have accused Stormont ministers of presiding over “chaos in the Executive” and “failing to carry out the most basic tasks of government”. Spokesman, Mark Brotherston, made his comments after the health minister, Edwin Poots, threatened to bust his department’s budget.
“The most fundamental task for any administration is to set a budget and stick to it”, Mark observed. “The Executive at Stormont cannot even manage that basic task. The health minister has been offered an increase of £20 million to run his department, but he’s threatening to spend up to £160 million more, irrespective of the consequences and in defiance of his DUP colleagues, Peter Robinson and Simon Hamilton. Devolved government in Northern Ireland is being turned into a circus by this complete inability to take tough decisions, coupled with a culture of wasting taxpayers’ money.”
“At the root of many of the Executive’s financial difficulties is its failure to reform welfare. Hard-working people are being targeted because Sinn Féin, in particular, refuses to change a failed, expensive system. They’re trying to fool people in Northern Ireland into believing that we can maintain a hugely expensive welfare system, out of step with the rest of the UK, without making serious cuts elsewhere. A ten year old child could rip their argument apart.”
“While the DUP, Sinn Féin and other Executive parties fail to show a sense of responsibility, it is the people of Northern Ireland who suffer. Hard-working people are being laid off, as departments make cuts necessary because the welfare issue hasn’t been tackled. Other services will have to be cut if Edwin Poots spends far more than his budget allows. Not only do the various parties find it impossible to agree. Now ministers from the same party are at loggerheads. People in Northern Ireland deserve far better than the chaotic, irresponsible mess which the parties at Stormont are currently giving them.”