NI Conservatives’ economy spokesman, Johnny Andrews, has welcomed agreement on a draft budget at Stormont, but noted that the last minute nature of the deal “exposed long-term dysfunction within the Executive”.
“We’re pleased that a budget has been struck and we hope that a start can now be made to reforming welfare”, Johnny noted. “However this is long overdue and the crisis over balancing the books reveals just how badly the Executive has been mismanaging Northern Ireland’s finances. Ministers have presided over waste, constant underspends, failures to plan ahead for circumstances that are now described euphemistically as ‘unescapable pressures’ and generally sticking their heads in the sand. There has been no genuine vision and very little judgement, when it comes to actually improving the economy or prioritising front-line services.”
“The Executive seems to have agreed a budget by treating it like an accounting exercise. To avoid similar problems in the future, it must begin immediately to reform the public sector and make it more efficient. It must tackle the costs of segregation, which waste hundreds of millions of pounds each year in areas like housing and education. It must also tackle issues which are preventing the Northern Ireland economy from being competitive and attracting jobs, like employment laws which are out of step with the rest of the UK, excessive red tape, complicated planning laws and high energy costs.”
“Simon Hamilton needs to allay fears that the Executive plans to raid the capital budget in order to pay back the £100 million loan which he negotiated recently with the Treasury. It is vital to Northern Ireland’s economy to have a pipeline of infrastructure projects, which are ready to start, to boost the construction industry. It’s shameful that £30 million was sent back to the Treasury in July, due to mismanagement. It’s all very well agreeing some figures, but if the Executive does not tailor its spending to rebalancing the economy and prioritising front-line services, the next budgetary crisis will be just around the corner.”