Trade Unions call for immediate support to resolve strike actions, with long-term transformation of NI Finance
Today at Hillsborough Castle, talks on local finances will commmence between the five main NI political parties and the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris, albeit with fewer expectations than yesterday.
Speaking ahead of the discussions, ICTU Assistant General Secretary Gerry Murphy commented
We welcome these talks despite diminished expectations, and have been calling for the full restoration of the NI Executive and Assembly for almost two years. We reiterated this at a conference last Thursday marking the 25th anniversary of the Belfast/ Good Friday Agreement at which all five parties were participating with trade union activists.
All NI political parties, and even the Secretary of State himself, acknowledge that NI finances need more than a package. As we have been saying since summer and the launch of NIC-ICTU’s ‘Smart Money’ policy document, we need a short term fix (‘Drop the Debt) and a longer term solution (a new transformation fund and reform of the Barnett formula to UK funding based upon need). We also need to examine the inequitable UK tax regime.
Pay disputes are ongoing and are likely to escalate in the new year. The mood ‘on the shopfloor’ is hardening and will not be improved by another Xmas curtailed by a de facto pay reduction imposed by unaccountable English MPs in a collapsing Tory regime.
On the other hand, every party now agrees with the ICTU’s analysis of NI Finances and are echoing our solutions. The Community and Voluntary Sector and Business groups are also increasingly on same page.
Further petty threats of Water Charges are irrelevant non-solutions and will raise a pittance compared to what is required to maintain public services, let alone ‘transform’ them.
There are no quick fixes, but solutions are out there which can improve the lives of everyone in Northern Ireland.
