Debate contribution: Public-sector Pay

Debate contribution by Ms Diane Forsythe on 4 March 2024.

MLA

Ms Diane Forsythe

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

4 March 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Public-sector Pay

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4254684

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Public-sector workers deserve fair pay in return for the vital contribution that they make to delivering essential front-line services across the Province. That includes all groups of public-sector workers, with none left behind. Public-sector workers also deserve honesty as to what can be afforded and delivered at this time. We should not be in the business of misleading people on that, and to imply a commitment that all public-sector pay negotiations would be concluded by the end of this month should not be taken to lead people to believe that we are in the position to settle all awards in that time. The letter from Laura Trott, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, to Dr Caoimhe Archibald, the Northern Ireland Finance Minister, on 13 February offered an additional £846 million to meet needs in 2023-24, with £584 million of that for public-sector pay. Local decisions have increased that, which is most welcome, but the Finance Minister has made it clear that that is not enough to settle all public-sector pay negotiations, and some entire groups of workers are not included in that figure. Again, is it important to be clear on that point. The obstacle to delivering fair pay awards has not been political uncertainty as the motion suggests or, indeed, a lack of political will; rather, it is the fact that public services have been underfunded by the Treasury for a number of years. Baseline funding in Northern Ireland is simply not sufficient to meet our needs. As public-sector pay is a key component of departmental spend, and our public-sector workforce is disproportionately larger than elsewhere in the UK, it is, perhaps, the most visible symptom of allocating funding in Northern Ireland on the basis of a population share rather than on need. All of that creates challenges for the recruitment and retention of people working across public services. In some cases, that is due to higher wages in the private sector or in other countries. In the health service, many can attain better pay and more-flexible work when employed by an agency. When £584 million has been made available by the Treasury to meet public-sector pay negotiations for 2023-24, it is right that those negotiations should, where possible, be concluded by the end of the financial year and that the Minister of Finance should make a statement to the Assembly upon their conclusion. However, again, we must be clear that we know that that will not cover all public-sector pay negotiations. We also need to be clear that the money awarded by the Treasury for 2023-24 is a one-off. It does not inform the baseline going forward, so while it might be possible to claim that we have retrospectively been funded to need in 2023-24, the £846 million does not address the deficit in baseline funding arising from our having been underfunded in 2022-23 and 2023-24 going forward. The Laura Trott letter makes provision for an additional £520 million for the financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26. If all the moneys allocated for public service stabilisation in those years are spent on public-sector wages, and nothing from the stabilisation pot on the public services themselves, there will be a £60 million wages shortfall in both years, and, from 2026-27, there will be no money available to meet that £584 million public-sector pay shortfall, as funding to Northern Ireland plunges below need for the second time in the space of four years. In that context, while it would be possible to use this debate simply to note that £584 million has been made available and to agree that negotiations for 2023-24 should be concluded this financial year and that the Minister of Finance should make a statement to the Assembly, the debate also affords an opportunity to demonstrate that the DUP is doing more than looking at the immediate future and is taking the lead in developing creative ideas to find sustainable longer-term funding solutions. We continue to be committed to making sure that Northern Ireland is funded to need. The UK Government must afford Northern Ireland the same two protections that it provides to Wales to prevent the block funding from falling below need: a 5% uplift to slow down the impact of the Barnett squeeze; and a fiscal floor at the Holtham definition of need below which funding cannot fall. Our staff in health and education and across the public sector in Northern Ireland deserve to be treated the same as their counterparts across the United Kingdom. Let us be clear that it was the DUP that fought hard for an increase in funding for Northern Ireland, and it continues that fight.

773 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:43 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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