Wilson on defensive despite extra budget funds

SAMMY WILSON came bearing millions of extra pounds to share among ministerial colleagues yesterday but he remained a Minister for Finance on the defensive when he rose to make his final budget statement in the North’s Assembly.

Securing agreement on the Northern Ireland Budget for 2011-15 had been he said “a long and necessarily slow process” and judging from the reaction from some of his political peers it is not over yet.

Terse words, angry, heated exchanges and at times a clearly exasperated Minister for Finance provided the backdrop as details were revealed of the next four-year budget which, Mr Wilson said, was “proof of the growing maturity” of the North’s political system.

But the arguing, posturing and protests which echoed around the Assembly chamber as the Minister unveiled which departments would get the extra cash contained in the final budget statement suggested the political system is still in its adolescent phase.

The SDLP and the Ulster Unionist Party have made no secret of the fact that they are not fans of the budget in its current form. With elections imminent in the North, the economy stagnating and unemployment rising, every penny and every vote counts more than ever before.

After listening to the final budget statement, SDLP leader and South Down MP Margaret Ritchie said her party “will not support a Tory cuts budget that has been carved up by the DUP, Sinn Féin and Alliance”.

She said the final budget does not contain enough changes to “mitigate against cutbacks”.

Ms Ritchie said Mr Wilson had also ignored innovative ideas to raise more money.

“Despite the increased funding to education, health and employment and learning, called for by the SDLP . . . it still does not go far enough to create jobs, protect front-line services and rebalance the economy. We cannot support a budget that is unfair, does not create jobs and does not try and rebalance the economy,” Ms Ritchie said.

The Ulster Unionist Party has also criticised what it believes will be the impact of “DUP-Sinn Féin cuts” on the North’s services.

“Once again the Democratic Unionist Party tried to trot out the mantra of ‘Tory cuts’. They seem to forget that the economic mess in which the United Kingdom finds itself is the result of the Labour government’s term of office and the worldwide economic downturn.

“Reduced public spending is a feature of life from Athens to Athlone, but the DUP and Sinn Féin are so economically illiterate they seem incapable of understanding this,” UUP leader Tom Elliot said.

But Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness defended the final budget saying the additional millions, which would be made available to various departments would be very welcome.

“The budget is over £1.5 billion more than would otherwise have existed had we simply crafted a budget based on the reduced block grant,” he said.

The Alliance Party said it was backing the budget because it is “part of a five-party Executive that has to agree a budget and departmental allocations within a constrained and reduced set of resources”.

Party finance spokesman Stephen Farry said: “Failure to agree a budget would . . . see a bad budget imposed. It is a shame that other parties have not been similarly constructive.”