Debate contribution: Cost-of-living Crisis
Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on .
- MLA
- Miss Deirdre Hargey
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 19 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Private Members' Business
- Heading
- Cost-of-living Crisis
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5795928
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The cost-of-living crisis is not an abstract problem. It is the parent putting groceries back at the checkout; the pensioner afraid to turn the heating on; and the family working hard and doing everything right, yet still struggling to make ends meet. Those are the realities that face families across the North, and we understand those pressures. We are out in our communities talking to people and hearing directly about the challenges that they face. Our Ministers are working in the Executive and delivering practical support, including, recently, an electricity discount of £63 for all homes, a £100 oil support scheme and £2·3 million of investment to support small businesses. Those measures matter, but, let us be honest: they are not enough. Families need more support; schools need investment; and the health service needs the resources to meet the growing demand. The SDLP is pressing parties to agree a Budget, but, let us be clear, a Budget without adequate funding will not solve the crisis; it will deepen it. Without additional money, agreeing a Budget would mean devastating cuts to public services. Our people should not be forced to pay the price of Westminster's failure to provide fair funding. The problem is clear: the North has limited powers to raise revenue. While the main financial decisions remain at Westminster, the block grant and the Barnett formula fail to properly reflect the needs of the population here. Comparisons have shown that fair funding arrangements could mean an additional £1 billion annually if we were compared with Wales and between £3 billion and £3·5 billion if compared with Scotland. This year, an additional £5 billion was given to councils in England to address historical deficits, yet we are told that there is no more money. We must, therefore, ask these questions: why are public services here expected to do more with less? Why do services in Scotland, Wales and England receive more funding than we do? How can additional billions of pounds be found for weapons of war while our hospitals, schools and essential services struggle? How can additional funding be found, when people here are told that there is no money, to be given to England, Scotland and Wales? It is about political choices. Sinn Féin believes that public money should be invested in our people, our children, our health service and, of course, our workers and communities.
Yes, I agree. The Executive have taken the right decision that there will not be water charges: we should not pass that burden on to the public here. That is the right course of action. Our public-sector workers have kept services going under immense pressure. They deserve fair pay and proper recognition and the increases that they have waited for too long to receive. We need a multiyear Budget that provides certainty, protects services and allows Departments to plan. We will use every power available to us to support families, protect services and, of course, help local businesses. However, the British Government must deliver the fair funding that our people deserve. They deserve better than cuts, uncertainty and the underinvestment that we have seen over the past decade. They deserve a fair share of properly funded services and a future shaped by their needs. Ultimately, we must have the ambition to build something better than the managed decline currently being offered by Westminster. Irish unity offers the opportunity to plan our economy and public services around the needs of our people. Children deserve warm classrooms; patients deserve timely care; and workers deserve fair pay. Families deserve to live with dignity, and all deserve a better future. That is what Sinn Féin will continue to fight for in the Budget discussions but also as we build for constitutional change.
625 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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