Debate contribution: Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Spring Supplementary Estimates 2023-24 and Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Estimates: Vote On Account 2024-25

Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on 9 April 2024.

MLA

Miss Deirdre Hargey

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

9 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Spring Supplementary Estimates 2023-24 and Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Estimates: Vote On Account 2024-25

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4481914

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I support today's resolutions. As was said, this is not the normal process by which these resolutions come forward. We know the reasons why, and, since she came into post, the Finance Minister has been clear on that. The spring Supplementary Estimates give effect to the allocations that were announced when the Assembly returned, and a key element of that was our public-sector pay. Many of us stood on the picket lines with public-sector workers in the lead-up to the Assembly's return. We know that that was a critical element of the Budget that was coming forward. I am glad that, in the Estimates, the Finance Minister has given an additional £100 million to public-sector pay. I am hopeful that a resolution can be reached in each of the Departments as soon as possible. It is important that, here today and in backing these resolutions, we reinforce our support for fair pay for our public-sector workers. Many in the Chamber have said that part of the reason that we are here today is because the British Government have admitted to underfunding the North for many years. We know that that underfunding over the past few years and, indeed, over the past decade or more has caused deep and lasting damage to our public services. Let us remember that a big part of that was a British Government policy of austerity to rob our public services, which impacted on the most vulnerable in our communities. It was that policy of choice by the British Government that has crippled our public services. Last year, the Tories continued to impose cuts on our public services. Many of those cuts affected front-line services, as we heard from many contributors today, in Health, Education, Communities and our Justice Department. Those cuts are felt hardest by our most vulnerable people. We have seen and heard about that from the voluntary and community sector, which is often the low-hanging fruit that is cut first. That should be an alarm for all of us. It is unacceptable that the British Secretary of State chose to inflict so much hardship on the most vulnerable. I am glad that the first act of the restored Assembly was a united call from all parties in the Chamber for a new fiscal framework that would ensure that we were provided funding on the basis of need. Sinn Féin is ready and willing, through our four-party Executive and working with the Opposition and others in the Chamber, to push the British Government to address underfunding in the North and its implications. That should remain our clear focus today and, importantly, in the coming weeks and months. We urgently need to address that underfunding. Of course, we need to look at the redesign and prioritisation of policies, resources and services, but we also need to look at the fiscal levers and the framework in its entirety. I believe that a fundamental pillar of all that has to be targeting social need and effectively addressing poverty and inequality. Our families, communities and workers deserve nothing less.

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

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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