Debate contribution: Public-sector Pay

Debate contribution by Mr Stewart Dickson on 4 March 2024.

MLA

Mr Stewart Dickson

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

4 March 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Public-sector Pay

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4254738

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to speak on a very important matter that has been a priority for the Alliance Party for a long time: the pay of our public-sector workers. At the outset, I declare an interest, in that I have been a public-sector worker for all my working life. Prior to coming to the Assembly nearly 12 years ago, I had the unique opportunity to work in the public sector and look at public-sector pay and conditions. For over 30 years, I worked as an employment relations officer in the Labour Relations Agency, assisting public-sector and other trade unions to negotiate their pay and conditions. I welcome the long overdue work that is now being done by Ministers, Departments and trade union negotiators across the public sector to determine and deliver pay increases. Those negotiations, however, must go hand in hand with long-term fiscal guarantees and mechanisms to ensure that we can adequately fund our public services and implement the necessary transformations. Public-sector workers are not looking for special treatment. They are merely seeking fairness and equality in pay and conditions, and their funding must reflect that. Funding has been delivered to their counterparts in England and Wales, but, as others reminded us in this debate, successive failures by Sinn Féin and the DUP have denied stability and certainty to, in many cases, underpaid and undervalued public-sector workers. One really wonders how contributors to today's debate believe that public-sector workers can take them seriously. It is that stop-start failure that led to the absence of proper long-term planning. Strained budgets have led to cuts and overspending. Our services have deteriorated more than in any previous period of collapse, falling far short of public expectations and damaging the resilience of public-sector workers. It is evident that it is an accumulation of longer-term issues that have been neglected for far too long. The current one-year package, which, broadly speaking, allows us to achieve pay parity with the rest of the United Kingdom, falls short of addressing the systemic pressures on public-sector pay going forward. Ultimately, without a long-term, sustainable option, the recurring costs of the pay awards will put continued significant, if not impossible, pressure on the Executive's finances, forcing them into a predicament in which they must choose between cutting services and ensuring fair pay. Those are not the only challenges that Northern Ireland faces. Improvements are needed in areas like healthcare, waiting lists, school budgets, infrastructure, childcare, poverty alleviation, climate change mitigation and many more. All that would be difficult enough for a well-functioning Government, let alone one that struggles with stability, unity and strategic focus. In the face of such pressures, we cannot have more of the same. Without genuine change, how will the Government work? Northern Ireland has little chance of addressing its problems, not least given the scale of the challenges that now face us over the next three years, with what are, hopefully, the dying days of a Tory Administration and the uncertain days of a new Government. Those changes can happen only if Northern Ireland has sustained stable government, and, to achieve that, reform of our institutions is needed. Furthermore, the repeated cycles of what can only be described as ransom politics have not only pushed the government structures to breaking point but eroded public confidence in the very concept of devolution. If we are to safeguard the future of the Good Friday Agreement and our institutions, it is imperative that we implement significant changes in those structures. My party's reform proposals, which respect the fundamental principles of the agreement, offer a pathway to stability and fairness. The reforms must ensure that no party can stop the formation of a Government or single-handedly collapse one in the future. That approach protects the rights of parties to participate in government, but it also gives them the option to opt out if they so choose, which the largest two parties cannot do under the current system. No party would be excluded, but, equally, no party would have a veto over the operation of government. Such a veto denies others the right to do their job and deliver for our constituents and public-sector workers. Moreover, a long-term Programme for Government and a multi-year Budget are essential. They will set out agreed priorities for the next three years, maintaining a sustained focus on improving public services so that benefits are tangible in the day-to-day lives of our citizens. While the financial packages agreed upon with the UK Government provide some relief for Northern Ireland's Budget, they do not solve the systemic issues in our public finances.

I will. In conclusion, the time to reform is now, the time to defend our public-sector workers on pay and conditions is now, and they should no longer be used as a political bargaining chip.

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

Assessment

Not qualifying

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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