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My Week

Posted by Sammy Wilson, MP for East Antrim, at 14:35, Tue 15 March 2011:

There have been a lot of twists and turns. More twisters than turners mind you but the Assembly has agreed a budget after more than forty hours of debate. As the Minister for Finance, I tried as hard as possible to reach agreement amongst every party. It was clear from very early on in the budget process however, that two parties were more concerned with political positioning on the eve of an election than they were in agreeing a budget. It is important to remember how Northern Ireland came to this point. The Tory-led government at Westminster has imposed massive cuts upon our block grant allocation, including a 40% cut in the capital budget. The origin of the cuts to Northern Ireland can be traced back to David Cameron’s infamous “News Night” interview in which he singled Northern Ireland out as the area he would be targeting for huge cuts. He was as good as his word and the local administration has been left to try and deal with the impact of these Tory cuts. Given the nature of their relationship with the Tories, for the UUP to protest about allocations being awarded to their ministries is the political equivalent of a mugger complaining that his victim didn’t give him enough when he ambushed him on a street corner. The UUP urged the people of Northern Ireland to vote Tory and install David Cameron in 10 Downing Street. Their finger-prints are all over the Tory cuts and even now they continue to defend what Cameron and Osborne have done to Northern Ireland. On Budget Day itself, one of their leading spokesmen Mike Nesbitt, always keen to offer an opinion on other occasions, was suddenly struck dumb when asked by Stephen Nolan if the block grant settlement imposed by Westminster was fair? Mike answered “I don’t know”. On the biggest issue that has confronted us since devolution was established, a leading UUP spokesman simply doesn’t know where he stands. Mike ‘I don’t know’ Nesbitt’s answer is symptomatic of the entire UUP approach during this budgetary process: backing the Tory cuts programme at Westminster, then attacking those who have to find a way to handle the Tory cuts at Stormont. Despite this cynical attitude, I tried at all times to bring the UUP in to the budget process and work with them, but they just weren’t interested. I never excluded anyone. For the UUP to talk about being excluded is just not true, and especially hypocritical considering DUP ministers had to go to court to get access to Northern Ireland Executive papers when David Trimble was First Minister. Budget negotiations are long and torturous when carried out in a spirit of good faith, but the UUP did not act in good faith: instead they chose cynical fear spreading because they think it will reap electoral dividends. It will do no such thing: it simply exposes their hypocrisy. I was gravely disappointed that rather than meeting me face to face the Minister for Health took to the airwaves to scare people with talk about “bankruptcy”, “collapse” and “job losses”. Health has the best deal of any region in the United Kingdom. A deal that any other Northern Ireland Health Minister would be proud of. In the budget settlement, we have recognised health as a top priority by ring-fencing health spending agreeing that because of the Health Minister’s failure to look for savings in his Department that we will send in a team from PEDU – the Performance and Efficiency Delivery Unit – to do the job for him. This week we were given a good example of the scope for savings that exist: one GP practice in Castlederg saved £311,000 in the space of 5 weeks by shifting from brand-name drugs to generic drugs. Yet if we were to believe the McGimpsey-spin the health service is on the brink of bankruptcy! We have also enshrined a commitment that all government departments will be top-sliced if the case is proven that extra resources are required. If PEDU show us that health needs more, we will ensure it receives it. In the budget we will be extending small business rates relief to boost town and village centres. We have resisted the calls of some parties, including the UUP, to impose water charging. We have also moved to ensure that public transport for our older citizens is secured. On Wednesday, the UUP voted against every single one of those measures. In rejecting the budget they also rejected the relief package for those affected by the collapse of the Presbyterian Mutual Society. The budget is not the ideal settlement I would have wished for, but it is designed to help those who are struggling to make ends meet and sow the seeds of economic recovery by helping our small businesses.