The Stormont Assembly was right to pass legislation to reform public sector pensions and unions who opposed the bill “are living in a fantasy land”, according to NI Conservatives’ spokesman, Mark Brotherston.
“I believe that credit should be given where it’s due and this is one of the very few occasions where this Assembly has got on with doing the responsible thing and taken a difficult decision”, Mark stated. “Unfortunately, with people living longer and the gap between public and private sector provision growing, public sector pensions on the old model are no longer sustainable. A burden which we simply could not afford was looming and the Public Service Pensions Bill, as well as other pension reforms, look to address that.”
“The unions and the SDLP, who both opposed the bill, are refusing to face reality. They live in a fantasy land where everyone can live longer, but retire at exactly the same age, on exactly the same terms and the enormous sums of extra money to pay for it will just magically appear from nowhere. Unfortunately, the real world is not like that and often politics means facing uncomfortable truths and taking difficult decisions. The majority of MLAs took a responsible approach on this occasion. They should do this far more often, starting by passing the Welfare Bill which their failure to adopt will cost Northern Ireland £200 million each year.”