Peter & Iris at odds over Health Budget says UUP Health Committee Man
UUP Health Committee John McAllister responded to comments made by Peter Robinson on the Health Budget to the Assembly Scrutiny Committee this morning. The UUP man said that there was breakdown between the Finance Minister and his wife Iris, the Chair of the Health Committee, who said that an increase in the Direct Rule budget of 2005 of 9% for health was insufficient.
Mr. McCallister said, “obviously there has been something of a breakdown in communications in the Robinson household. Finance Minister Peter Robinson is telling the Northern Ireland public that his miserly increase in spending on our NHS of 3.8% is enough. Iris Robinson, however, told the House of Commons in April 2005 that that year’s Direct Rule budget increase on NHS expenditure of 9% was insufficient. To quote Mrs. Robinson:
‘although a proposed increase of 9% … in the current expenditure of the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety may, on the surface, appear generous, health inflation continues to grow at a much steeper rate. By 2007-08, the percentage rise that direct rule Ministers have committed themselves to will be less than 6%. The positive public messages from Ministers do not equate with the demands and restrictions that they are placing on senior managers away from the media spotlight’. (House of Commons, 5th April 2005.)
That said, perhaps we should not be too hard on the Robinsons. They have, after all, led the DUP to perform some spectacular u-turns in recent times. This merely adds to the list. A 9% increase in health expenditure in 2005, Iris Robinson said, was not enough. Today Peter Robinson tells us that 3.8% is enough.”