Letter: Questions to be asked over drain of cash at Stormont

This interesting piece supplements the recent audit findings for the Department for the Economy, headed by Sinn Fein.

The 'establishment', including virtually every politician in NI, never tackle the blatant squandering of scarce cash and resources.

I believe there are additional topics critical to this debate:

The NI public sector has a roughly 50% higher head count than GB (~27% vs 18%).

This much bigger public sector diverts significant Stormont funds from essential societal needs in NI e.g. water infrastructure, childcare, old age support for nursing homes, etc.

With this ~50% larger NI public sector, why is the performance/productivity much worse than GB?

The levels of NI public sector and police sickness are much higher than GB too - why?

NI public sector DB pensions are worth/cost ~30% of gross pay, as Ben already alluded to; much higher benefits than private sector equivalent.

However, on top of this gold-plated benefit, NI also has high levels of enhanced sick pensions allowing early retirement without actuarially reduced pension payouts.

Why is this 'benefit' higher in NI than GB and why is it permitted as another drain of Stormont cash?

To finish, I don't agree that NI residents should have to pay additional taxes, whilst this financial waste is so prevalent.

We already pay water charges in our rates bills and we are financially disadvantaged as a result of Westminster’s imposed Irish Sea border and inability to now source many goods within our own country.

G Murphy, Castlerock