The Irish Congress of Trade Unions calls on all 18 MPs from Northern Ireland to vote against this budget which will drag the local economy even further from any meaningful recovery.
Speaking after the Chancellor George Osborne made his Budget speech in the House of Commons, Avril Hall-Callaghan, Chair of the Northern Ireland Committee of the ICTU, said:
“This budget is regressive and short sighted and will disproportionately affect women both as workers and as mothers, through welfare cuts and pay freezes in the public sector, whose workforce is mostly female.
“The private sector and the organisations which claim to speak in their interests have little to cheer about, either. While a handful of large businesses will profit from gradual cuts in Corporation Tax, retailers and service providers will be hit by a double whammy of the increase in VAT to 20% and the decrease in consumer spending by public sector workers. Given the importance to Northern Ireland of the public sector, this will mean more shuttered shops on our streets.
“The opportunity to stimulate the economy, especially in the regions and nations of the UK, is being squandered at the behest of the bond markets and the ideology of this Tory-led coalition. The promised firm action on the banks and on Capital Gains Tax is a limp slap across the wrist, compared to the threat of 25% cuts across most departmental budgets during this Parliament.
“We await with trepidation to see what the funding consequences are for the Northern Ireland budget. The 18 MPs we have elected now have a duty to protect the people of Northern Ireland from the regressive intentions of this “progressive alliance working in the national interest”, as George Osborne claimed today. We see little progressive in this budget and less in the interest of Northern Ireland.”