FIRST MINISTER Peter Robinson has proposed a two-year pay freeze for civil servants earning over £21,000 per year as one of a series of measures to cut back radically on public spending in Northern Ireland.
Mr Robinson, who has estimated that British chancellor George Osborne's spending review will remove £5 billion from the North's economy over the next four years, yesterday launched a DUP document, Rising to the Challenge, which sets out ways of reducing spending.
Speaking to business people at the La Mon Hotel in Belfast, Mr Robinson said the DUP’s priority in the next Northern Executive budget was to “grow the economy, protect the vulnerable and deliver the most effective and efficient public services”.
As well as a pay freeze for many civil servants, Mr Robinson has proposed a ban on general civil servant recruitment, and that Executive Ministers voluntarily return 5 to 10 per cent of their salaries as an “indication of the shared sacrifice” that is required in balancing the financial books in Northern Ireland.
There should be efficiency savings of 2 to 3 per cent each year in the 12 Northern Executive departments. He ruled out introducing water charges.
The Rising to the Challengedocument follows on Sinn Féin proposals last month that party leader Gerry Adams said would save £1.9 billion.
Mr Robinson said DUP Ministers would “positively engage” with other Ministers to try to agree a budget. Normally, a provisional budget would be expected in December to be formally announced in January.
But such are the British chancellor’s spending review demands that it is problematic whether the five parties in the Executive will be able to agree a budget within that timeframe, particularly in the face of Assembly elections that are to be held in May next year.
Mr Robinson nonetheless expressed confidence that the DUP, Sinn Féin, the Ulster Unionist Party, the SDLP and Alliance would agree a way forward.
He said the DUP proposals were offered as a contribution to the current debate on how to achieve economic savings. “I believe we have the policies that will allow our economy to grow and be stimulated. I believe that we can deal with the cuts in a way that is manageable without causing major pain to our community,” he said.
“I don’t believe we should be as gloomy as many people are outside about the future,” added Mr Robinson.
The First Minister said that “efficiency savings must come before tax increases”. He proposed that domestic rates only be increased by the rate of inflation over the next four years.
Mr Robinson called for a review of non-governmental organisations to test how many quangos would be abolished or merged or whether there could be savings through the pooling of administrative services.
He repeated that the number of Assembly members should be reduced from 108 to 75 or 72 by 2015, and that the number of departments drop from 12 to “no more than eight”.
He said that surplus under-performing assets owned by the Executive should be sold but at a time – probably towards the end of the spending review period – when the market had improved.
Mr Robinson also said that Belfast Port could be levied on its profits “which could raise tens of millions of pounds in the next four years”.