Alliance facing questions on what services it would cut - as Naomi Long calls for more cash for justice
A row has erupted between Executive parties after the justice minister said other departments should reallocate funding to her department – with Alliance now facing questions about what services it would cut for that to happen.
Naomi Long said she is “tired” of other people framing the health service as “life and death” – arguing that the justice system is also life and death.
The Ulster Unionist Party says successive Alliance ministers have not fought hard enough for the policing and justice system, and are now trying to blame other departments that did.
Doug Beattie has questioned which hospitals Mrs Long wants to close and what services the Alliance Party wants to cut, while at the same time asking “for more from the health service”.
The Alliance deputy leader was asked on the BBC Nolan Show to name a department whose budget would be reduced, but declined to do so. He said that the justice ministry should be “a priority” for the Executive.
Asked by Mr Nolan if it should be the “number one priority”, Eoin Tennyson said: “It could be the case in monitoring rounds that it could be”.
Naomi Long made the comments during a Nolan Show interview this week, where she argued that her justice department has not had a fair share of funding compared to other key departments like health and education.
“When people say to me, ‘where is the money coming from?’ – my answer is, the money that's gone into lots of other services came from justice. That's where it was taken from.
“And we now need to look at rebalancing that so that justice has enough to be able to do the job well, to be able to do it speedily, to be able to do it effectively, because public safety matters. These are life and death choices.
“I get tired of other people always screaming, for example, health or whatever as life and death. This is life and death too” she told Mr Nolan.
UUP MLA Doug Beattie said the question needs to be asked, ‘why now?’
“Why have we let our police service be degraded to such a level before we finally start to show society the importance of policing and the critical work the PSNI does to keep us safe? I have long argued that we need to fight harder for the police service to ensure they have the resources they need so they can do the job we want of them.
“When the Chief Constable went above the Justice Minister’s head, to appeal directly to Westminster and the Prime Minister to ask for more funding, the alarm bells should have been sounded.
“It was clear at that time that successive justice ministers had not seen the writing on the wall and had not been fighting for the police. Now, when we have reached a critical point, they stand and complain that they haven’t been given the funding they require. Instead of looking at how they can deal with the lack of resource through both Westminster and internal savings, they are instead engaged in sucking their teeth and blaming other departments who did fight for the resource they needed”, the Upper Bann representative said.
He accused the Alliance Party of having allowed the justice system “to get to the state it is in”.
“They are the party that has not fought hard enough for policing or for justice in general. However, there are solutions coming to the fore, and they are in partnerships with other departments”, Mr Beattie said. He welcomed the ‘Right Care Right Person’ initiative, which he said would see the Department of Health taking on issues which had fallen to police, like mental health interventions.
Minister Long told the BBC that she runs the entire justice system on 8% of the Stormont budget, while health and education alone get 71%.
“Now, if you want to sleep safely in your bed at night, if you want to know the criminals, both in the community and in prison are being dealt with appropriately, are being managed effectively, are being supervised thoroughly, and are being rehabilitated for release, then you've got to fund that”, she said.
The East Belfast MLA added: “When Justice was devolved, we had 11% of the Block Grant. I could only dream of 11% of the Block Grant now, so money has been taken. It's been taken from justice and given to other departments. And I'm saying, time to give it back”.