Allister comments on December Monitoring Round
15 December 2008
Today’s announcement by the Finance Minister falls very short of the expectations and needs of the people of Northern Ireland. Of the much vaunted £900 million financial package from the Treasury, in reality the Monitoring round has simply ‘recycled’ existing commitments, with very little evidence of new money being made available to meet the enormous needs of our businesses, farmers and private individuals in this challenging economic climate.”
Take, for example the announcement of an additional £20m to the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme, the MEP commented:
“Of course farmers making huge financial commitments under this Scheme expect to have the 60% grant rate honoured. However, all successful applicants had already been promised that this would indeed be the case before today’s announcement. These ‘additional’ funds are only necessary because of the gaping black hole created by the Executive’s blunder of committing £90 million to DARD, on the gross overvaluation of DARD assets at Crossnacreevy”.
“The allocation of £500,000 to cover the costs of farmers affected by August’s flash floods is miserly, on the basis that 11% of the potato crop and 14% of the total cereal crop was destroyed. £0.7million to fishermen at this time is of little comfort as they face the prospect of further cuts in quotas and days at sea which is likely to further reduce the fleet, helped little by an incompetent Agriculture Minister supposedly defending their interests.”
A £150 payment to households on Income Support and Pension Credit, while welcome for those households, will not assist the vast majority of hardworking citizens who have seen weekly household bills rise considerably. If the Executive Parties didn't persist with the unnecessary waste of 11 Departments, 108 MLA’s and pouring money down the North/South drain, then there would be so much more available for the real needs of our hard-pressed sectors and citizens.”
ENDS
