THE NORTHERN Executive has agreed £70 million (€78 million) in measures to alleviate financial hardship, including a one-off payment of £150 towards electricity bills for more than 100,000 households.
The package deals with energy and fuel poverty; debt arising from the increasing cost of living and unemployment; support for the housing market and construction industry; support for household budgets; and support for businesses. The measures coincided with Northern Ireland Electricity announcing it is reducing its bills by 10 per cent, while Phoenix Gas prices are to drop by 22 per cent.
First Minister Peter Robinson said the measures were part of an overall package that "will sustain Northern Ireland's economy over the coming years and months while confidence returns to the global credit market".
Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said: "These pragmatic and imaginative measures have been designed to help those in our society who have been hardest hit by the global downturn."
The Ministers added that they would engage further with banks and other financial institutions to ease hardship. They also promised a clampdown on "loan sharks who prey on the poor".
DUP Minister for Finance Nigel Dodds gave the Assembly details of the hardship measures that were agreed by the Executive yesterday morning.
He said 65,000 households on income support and 36,000 households receiving pension credits each would have £150 paid towards their first electricity bill of 2009. This would be in addition to the winter fuel allowance of up to £250 for those aged 60-79 and £400 for those aged 80 and over.
Mr Dodds also announced funding of £20 million for the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme to encourage the construction of slurry tanks where farmers meet 40 per cent of the cost. This would have the additional benefit of "leveraging in further support for construction firms" that would carry out the work, he said.
Mr Dodds said there would be an additional £4 million for schools maintenance, £2.5 million for roads structural maintenance and £1.8 million for public transport capital works, "which will not only provide additional work to the construction sector at very short notice but will also lead to an improvement in our public infrastructure".
There will be a one-year freeze on a 2.7 per cent rates increase that was expected to hit Northern business next year, with a new rates relief scheme for small business to follow.
Other measures include funding of £700,000 to help people in the fishing industry and £500,000 to support farmers suffering flood hardship.
The Minister added that construction firms would be freed up to bid for public contracts worth £115 million for schools and hospitals as these would no longer be blocked by legal difficulties.
SDLP Minister for Social Development Margaret Ritchie was the main dissenting voice yesterday, accusing Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness of conducting a £30 million "smash and grab raid" on her housing maintenance budget so that departments run by DUP and Sinn Féin Ministers would benefit.
Ms Ritchie added that she was glad the Executive had backed what she said was her fuel poverty proposal. "In fact, they like it so much that OFMDFM [Office of First Minister and Deputy First Minister] have decided to take it forward," she added.
Mr Robinson rejected Ms Ritchie's claims. "I'm just at a loss, the social development Minister doesn't seem to know from one minute to the next what she is doing. She supported it at the Executive," he said.
"It's a proposal which goes beyond what she wanted."