Stakeholder

The Budget this week may be have been one which delivered harsh news for the majority of the population while to a degree letting Northern Ireland off the hook – for now. But there can be little doubt that while Alastair Darling has taken away with one hand and given with another (robbing Peter to pay Martin?), the trend is set in stone; we in Northern Ireland are going to have to start taking, and living with, hard decisions on our incomes levels and spending plans. While we will get a Barnett ‘read across’ of an additional £143m in 2010/11, reduction in spending of £123m will need to be found in the same period. The simple way of saying ‘reduction in spending’ is of course to call what them they are: cuts.

The need for cutbacks in public spending in the each of the next three years will have the impact of forcing the Executive and the Assembly to very quickly mature into a political vehicle which can administer hard medicine while proving it is robust enough to withstand the public backlash. Although the mishandled announcement from Translink (there’s a phrase which one gets used to hearing) was not directly related to this week’s budget, the political reaction was interesting to observe. At the time of writing not one Minister had come forward to either support, explain or justify the increases. While a fair degree of the blame for that goes to Translink who apparently simply ignored protocol and bypassed the Consumer Council, it remains true that when free travel for pensioners was made public Ministers from DFP, DRD and OFMDFM were tripping over one another to claim credit.

Our own Finance Minister Nigel Dodds, to his credit, was quick to assess the impact of the Budget locally and over the last few days some of his comments, taken alongside those of his party colleague Simpn Hamilton have indicated that the blinkers are coming off in regard to the preparedness of the Executive to re visit its own spending plans. This is imperative and as other politicians have pointed out it simply makes no sense to ignore the worsening economic realities. Still Nigel Dodds has refused to countenance the introduction of water charges or an increase in rates and instead he has pointed to savings which could be made through a reform of our political structures.

In Scotland, each Member of the Scottish Parliament represents 42,000 people, in Wales an Assembly Member has responsibility for roughly 50,000 constituents while in the Republic of Ireland every 24,000 citizens can claim to be represented by a TD.  In Northern Ireland the figure is one MLA per 16,287 – an inflated figure which was a necessity of its time but as Mark Durkan has said the ugly scaffolding of peacemaking political structures has to come down sooner or later. It is hard to find anyone who will argue for the retention of 12 Government Departments in the Assembly also, and with the imminent arrival of a new Department of Policing and Justice it is surely time to streamline that number.

All of that can save around £50m each year according to our Finance Minister. These are progressive measures which are worthy of serious consideration, but they are only represent half of the dual approach needed to truly bring Northern Ireland forward. Savings based on party political aspirations on their own will not deliver the economy we aspire to and are capable of achieving, they need to be aligned to progressive economic thinking and so far there is not enough evidence of that.

There are some commentators and indeed some within the political system who point out too meekly that the executive is powerless when it comes to real economics. That is just not true and it is something the current crop of Ministers should simply not accept.
In Essex last week the local council announced that it is to set up a bank dedicated to helping local firms trade through the credit crunch. For a total cost of £50m local businesses will get access to loans up to £100,000.  It is a bold step, taken in conjunction with banking giant Santander, and there is nothing to stop Northern Ireland adopting the same model.

Coincidentally there is a nice convergence between the figure Nigel Dodds thinks can be saved through political re structuring and the amount which Essex County Council are putting into their Bank scheme. New economic and business initiatives and reductions in public spending can go hand in hand and produce a dynamic which positions NI well to take advantage of an upturn when it comes. If we get the mix right going forward then maybe Alastair Darling has done us a favour.