The Economic Crisis - Making the Right Choices
19 May 2009
One of the key messages in his campaign for re-election as one of Northern Ireland’s three MEPs was safeguarding jobs, said Mr Allister, Leader of the Traditional Unionist Voice Party.
He said the Irish Republic was already in very deep recession with job centre queues growing every day. But Mr Allister said Northern Ireland must see itself as part of the international economy, not depend on links with the Republic but look towards the larger UK economy and the world.
“The impact of the global economic downturn in Northern Ireland is undeniably severe,” said Mr Allister.
“Profligate banks and governmental mismanagement, inducing a reckless monetary culture, has wreaked havoc across Europe. The foolish response of some in demanding greater subjugation to Brussels, is the counsel of folly.
“Families are struggling to make ends meet, many can't cope, and what does the EU want to do? Insist that British workers should be banned from working overtime, by prohibiting more than 48 hours work per week!
“It is such madness that I have constantly opposed in the European Parliament.
“The dwindling economy of the Irish Republic is an object lesson in the failure of the Eurozone to provide protection in a time of storm. With the Eurozone's habitual high prices, higher levels of unemployment and lower growth, Northern Ireland is very definitely better off out of it.
“The economic crisis is a reminder that for a region like Northern Ireland the best refuge is provided by the larger UK economy, outside the Eurozone. Closer alignment with the dwindling economy of the Republic would be an unmitigated disaster.
“Now is a time to row back from, rather than deeper into, an all-island economy. Already we’ve gone too far down that road. Yet, foolishly, under the Belfast Agreement devolution, we are wasting millions on pointless cross-border bodies – whose every financial demand has been meekly rubber-stamped by the two DUP Ministers who we have had at the Department of Finance and Personnel since devolution returned in May 07.
“Unrestricted free movement of labour within the EU and procurement requirements in regard to major public works contracts, leading to a large influx of foreign workers, have stirred occasions of resentment from local workers in the UK.
“The compulsion to subject our labour market and laws to the supremacy of EU law is part of the price being paid for EU membership. Procurement policy which prohibits preference for local contractors and workers is stoking up more and more resentment of the EU and its inflexible dogma.”
