Revenue-raising proposals are ‘punitive and sinister’, Sinn Fein says

MLA Deirdre Hargey said the measures, reported to include increasing the price of school dinners and fares for public transport, are a tactic by the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris to put pressure on the DUP to return to the Stormont powersharing institutions.

Politicians from the largest four parties met with the head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Jayne Brady, on Thursday as part of ongoing dialogue about preparations for the restoration of the Stormont Assembly.

Parties had been presented with a briefing paper, compiled by Stormont civil servants, which includes a list of more than 40 potential revenue-raising measures.

In June, Mr Heaton-Harris instructed Stormont officials to provide him with information on such measures.

He has argued additional revenue-raising is required to balance the books in Northern Ireland, where Stormont departments are facing significant budget pressures during the powersharing impasse.

The BBC has reported that other proposed measures in the briefing paper include asking people to pay for school transport, raising Housing Executive rents and street parking charges.

But Ms Hargey said the region instead needs to examine a "fiscal floor" financial framework, similar to what has been negotiated in Wales.

She said: "This is a punitive and sinister approach by the British Secretary of State to create anxiety within the public and put pressure on the DUP.

"Part of the discussion that we did have around our finances is looking at a fiscal floor that is in Wales, for example, that was negotiated previously.

"Some of the evidence that we had presented to us this morning is that we are way below the fiscal floor, if there was one introduced here in terms of public financing.

"When you measure that against the need, we have a higher need yet we are getting a lower sum of money, these are part of the things that we need to correct."

UUP MLA Mike Nesbitt said: "Those revenue-raising proposals belong to the Secretary of State, not to any of the parties.

"I have seen a list of 40-plus revenue-raising areas, I would like to see the detail behind them."