Robinson & McGuinness seek the glory but dodge the pain
09 September 2011
TUV Leader and member of the DEL Committee at Stormont has questioned where the axe will fall to fund the belated announcement on tuition fees. Expressing the view that DEL is having to bear a disproportionate share (50%) of finding the £40m shortfall, Mr Allister said he feared for vital parts of the DEL budget.
“With high youth unemployment a particular blight in Northern Ireland, I will be looking for assurance that training opportunities for non-university young people will not be cut. It would be unacceptable if that large section of our youth who do not aspire to go to university, but want skills to enter the workplace, were to lose out to fund university tuition fees. Equally, reskilling the unemployed is vital to the recovery of our economy. Putting a £20m cut on DEL will, I fear, have many negative economic consequences.
“Instead, some of the fat cat departments, particularly OFMDFM, should be giving up their unspent millions, like the under-spending, over-funded Social Investment Fund and the lavish waste of £100m pa on north/southery should be the source of plugging the £40m gap.
“Today’s Belfast Telegraph’s editorial warning is spot on, both in terms of the threat now posed to DEL services and the dysfunctional nature of the Executive. We must not now see a haemorrhaging of key funds from DEL while other departments make only token contributions to fund a decision in respect of which all ministers want the glory, but few are willing to pay for it. The First Ministers made sure they got to make the announcement, but have turned and walked away to leave DEL to find the money.”
