Letter: Stormont ministers should stop treating taxpayers in England, Scotland and Wales like a magic money tree
A letter from Edward Ferrin:
You would have been forgiven for thinking that Paul Givan was a member of Sinn Féin when he spoke about the budget negotiations in the media recently.
Paul Givan and other unionist ministers tow the Sinn Féin line that we should receive funding levels like Wales or Scotland does but refuse to accept that people in Northern Ireland should also pay for public services through revenue raising as people in Wales or Scotland do.
Stormont ministers often refer to the recent NI Fiscal Council Sustainability Report which states that Northern Ireland is currently underfunded by around £170 million – primarily because of a slow population projection figure used by Treasury. However, the same report found that Northern Ireland received funding to its level of need for every year since 2016.
Scottish workers and families pay council tax, pay higher income tax rates than others in the UK and have a geographical claim to the decades long revenue boom from North Sea gas and oil which successive UK governments have exploited to the benefit of the entire UK. Welsh workers and families pay council tax, pay water charges, have higher tuition fees and faced tougher social welfare cuts than other parts of the UK.
Stormont has made political choices not to raise revenue for NI Water through water charges, expand university places through higher tuition fees, support community pharmacies through prescription charges or reform the rates system to increase local government and regional revenue streams. Political choices are free to make in a democracy, but they are utterly irresponsible if they fly in the face of harsh economic and fiscal reality.
Asking Chris Bryant and Treasury to hand us more money – some £1.5 billion over the next three years – is one of the biggest rehearsals of the famous ‘please sir can I have some more’ scene in Oliver Twist.
His constituents in Rhondda and Ogmore face an average water bill of £627 per year and a benchmark council tax premium around £2,289. How dare we ask him to go to his constituents and ask that they pay more tax to give to us when we don’t pay water bills nor pay enough revenue through the rates system for our public services?
Unionist politicians are undermining the case for Northern Ireland’s place within the UK if they continue to shut their eyes and ears to reality. Shirking difficult decisions in government will make the British taxpayer more aggrieved at the sight of more money in the hands of Stormont from Treasury to help us through yet another financial mismanagement of our public services.
Sinn Féin’s quip that only a united Ireland will deliver fair funding for our public services has been bolstered by political unionism’s failure to challenge that narrative. Unionists must accept the reality: Stormont is funded fairly but has chosen to spend money for things which we can’t sustain. We need to raise more revenue or cut expenditure if we are to end the cycle of financial mismanagement in our public services.
Stormont ministers, particularly those from unionist parties, should stop treating taxpayers in England, Scotland and Wales like a magic money tree.
Edward Ferrin, Belfast BT14