UUP calls on Finance Minister to spell out “Tough Choices”

Ulster Unionist Party Finance Spokesperson Roy Beggs MLA has urged the Finance Minister Peter Robinson to inform the Assembly of what he considers to be the “difficult and challenging decisions” in light of tight restraints imposed on Northern Ireland’s public expenditure in yesterday’s Pre-Budget Report and Comprehensive Spending Review.

Mr. Beggs said, “There are no surprises for Northern Ireland in this Pre-Budget Report and CSR. The increase in public expenditure between now and 2010/11 of £1.2 billion was first announced by Gordon Brown nearly a year ago – 1st November 2006 – when he met with the all the parties. At that stage the now Finance Minister – Peter Robinson – derided the announcement as merely ‘an opening offer’. His party then went on to announce to the electorate that a less ‘stingy’ financial package was a pre-requisite for the restoration of devolution. Gordon Brown has obviously decided otherwise – resulting in the Finance Minister today instructing the people of Northern Ireland to prepare for ‘tough choices’.

“It is now essential that the Finance Minister inform the Assembly at the earliest possible opportunity of what he considers the ‘difficult and challenging decisions’ to be. In light of the fact that we have known Northern Ireland’s CSR settlement since November 2006 – and considering the obvious failure of an additional £1 billion financial package to materialise, despite the grandiose promises and posturing of certain parties – we must surely assume that the Finance Minister is fully prepared to detail the difficult choices to which he has referred.

“The Pre-Budget Report and CSR come in the same week as the Assembly’s Regional Development Committee have commenced their deliberations on the first report of the Independent Water Review Panel. The Assembly and the Finance Committee now have a crucial role in scrutinizing the Finance Minister’s plans and his related decisions on water charges and industrial rates.”

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