Gerry Carroll
West Belfast · People Before Profit Alliance · Northern Ireland
“Yesterday morning, as others did, I stood alongside our resident doctors as they commenced a 24-hour period of industrial action. We often praise our healthcare workers in the House and more generally, saying things such as that they are invaluable and that we wish them well.”
“If we have learnt anything from the political events of the past week, it is that powerful people — powerful men, in particular — and institutions should always be held to maximum account when it comes to abuse, neglect and victims, and that victims and survivors should be believed and supported on every occasion.”
“Agency spend has, again, gone through the roof and is sky-high; locum spend has gone up and continues to go up — it has gone up by in the region of £0·5 billion over the past few years; and, almost every single year out of the past five to 10 years, hundreds of millions of pounds of public money have been pumped into the for-profit privat…”
“With bills increasing month-on-month and year-on-year, that is true, and those workers need a proper settlement that meets their needs and the ever-increasing cost of living. One striking doctor put it to me starkly yesterday. They said that they left Scotland and took a more senior position in the health sector in Belfast.”
“I commend Stephen and his colleagues in the Bill Office and the Executive Office officials, who worked closely with me to try to support, amend or help along my amendments — whatever way you want to look at it. I also want to commend the Member for Fermanagh and South Tyrone who spoke out during the last few stages.”
“I commend people for speaking out on the issue, especially Sharon Burke. I think that she might be in the Gallery. She has been emailing Members on that issue.”
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“Junior doctors are already prepared to strike over the pitiful sum on offer, and I fully support them. It is unfortunate that those life-saving workers have been forced to take strike action on the picket line, but that is the surest way for their demands to be delivered. If the Executive are intent on cutting services, adding to waiting lists and impoverishing public-sector workers, they must be met with an organised response. That includes workers taking strike action.”
“<BR /> <BR />I would love to say that those are things of the past, but, between last night and, probably, later today, the Executive parties will have rammed through another austerity Budget, with no qualms, no scrutiny and no opposition from the so-called official Opposition. Make no mistake: the Budget Bill that is likely to be passed today will add to the waiting lists that the Executive claim that they want to address. <BR /> <BR />I wonder whether the Executive parties truly believe their own propaganda or are deliberately trying to deceive the public. I will leave it to health workers and others to decide, but they should know this: the conversation is taking place primarily because 170,000 public-sector workers took strike action more than a month ago and demanded a pay rise and investment in our public services.”
“As far as I can see, the problem is that, instead of standing with our communities and challenging that policy, parties here followed the Tories into the mire, time and again. They accepted the Tory logic that there is no money for our health service and implemented some of the most brutal cuts in accordance with that warped logic. Worse still, the parties here accepted the Tories' supposed solutions, which are no solutions at all. While refusing to invest in public services and public-sector workers, they handed record sums to private agency firms and private healthcare facilities that are profiting from the mess that Stormont made. They surrendered domiciliary care to the private sector, which provides 80% of domiciliary care, giving it carte blanche to exploit health workers and to bleed the public purse dry at the same time.”
“I agree with the sentiment of the motion, but the sentiments ring hollow when they come from parties such as the DUP and its Executive colleagues. Health workers, like all public-sector workers, are tired of their performative nonsense. They are tired of listening to politicians who bemoan the skyrocketing health waiting lists while implementing the cuts that fuel the same crisis. People who are languishing on health waiting lists not only want their concerns to be heard but action to be taken to deal with them. <BR /> <BR />We are under no illusions about the Tory Government. They have no interest in protecting our health service. They have stripped it of resources time and again. Indeed, Tory policy is the greatest threat to public health on these islands.”
“They deserve it, because it is their self-sacrifice that has kept our health service afloat in the face of Stormont's negligence. It is not by accident that there are thousands of vacancies in our health service. Those vacancies exist because successive Health Ministers have cut health workers' pay in real terms and funnelled money away from our health service and into the private sector. I stress and emphasise that the Minister should immediately move to bring private health facilities into public ownership in order to help to tackle the waiting lists.”
“A lot of people, health workers in particular, will see today's motion as an admission of guilt from those who have gutted our health service. Three parties from the current Executive — the DUP, Sinn Féin and the UUP — have held the health portfolio for the last decade, and all three have overseen the growing waiting lists, unsafe staffing levels and attacks on health workers' pay. <BR /> <BR />I will emphasise workers' pay, because we cannot hope to deal with waiting lists unless we pay health workers properly. We need to pay them properly so that we can recruit and retain staff in our health service. We need to pay them properly because they deserve it. They deserve to be able to provide for themselves and their families.”
“If all that the Executive do is implement Tory policy, it begs this question: what exactly are the Executive good for? Budget cuts are budget cuts, and it makes little odds whether they come directly from the Tories or from their enablers here. <BR /> <BR />I finish by inviting the Opposition to vote against the Budget Bill and join the socialist opposition and people who stand against the Budget for the reasons that I have stated.”
“Huge challenges are faced by our asylum seeker and refugee communities, and the Executive need to stand up and fight for them. The Executive need to challenge the rotten Tory hostile environment policies, not implement them. The Home Office needs to cough up money to ensure that asylum seekers are not evicted from their homes when they achieve settled status. I am long enough in the tooth to know that that will not happen without pressure from anti-racism groups, migrant communities and housing campaigners. It is not enough for the Executive to leave the Tories to it or to oversee their dirty work.”
“The BMA left its meeting with the Department feeling extremely disappointed and disheartened; it has been offered a below-inflation pay deal that will do nothing to recruit more doctors and stop people leaving these shores to seek and obtain greater pay. The Budget Bill fastens in those pay cuts. That alone should be a reason to vote it down. I thank our junior doctors for all their hard work over the years. If they are out on picket lines, I will stand with them, but will it not be absurd if Executive parties pass the Bill and then join the picket lines when people strike early next month? I hope that they do not. <BR /> <BR />The Budget contains some money to support asylum seekers and refugees, but it appears to be completely inadequate.”
“The question is this: who will lose out? Unite the union has already written to the Minister to clarify whether the £688 million pay package makes any provision for a pay and grading review sought by striking education workers that is six years overdue. The union has warned that if there is not enough money or not enough on offer, the workers will take strike action. That is a certainty, and I will back them if they take that action. As we have heard, they are some of the lowest-paid workers, who deliver essential work in difficult and challenging circumstances, especially with people who have complex needs. <BR /> <BR />Junior doctors are also appalled by the pay offer that they have received. Their wages have fallen by 30% over the past 15 years, a significant divergence of pay, but the DUP has said nothing about it.”
“When selling the Bill, the Minister and her colleagues talked about the money that is set aside for public-sector workers. The first thing to be said is that, if there is an increase, whatever the detail is, it will have been won by the public-sector workers who went on strike last month in unprecedented numbers — 170,000 of them. People were told for too long about money trees not existing, but we knew that it was a spoof and a lie, and the workers did not buy it. They changed the narrative and shifted the terms of the debate. Anything extra that has been obtained is down to their fight, their strikes and their struggle, not to the clever words of politicians behind closed doors. <BR /> <BR />The Finance Minister stated in correspondence to the Finance Committee:”
“However, there have also been suggestions for higher tuition fees, possibly limited travel for over-65s, and the reintroduction of prescription charges. They all hang over ordinary people like the sword of Damocles. I say clearly that, if the Executive proceed with any of those plans, people need to be ready to take to the streets to protest and campaign to resist such cruel measures. The DUP enabled the Tories all along by collapsing Stormont and by being attached at the hip for so many years. Now that Sinn Féin is in the Government, with ministerial portfolios, it should not do the Tories' bidding. <BR /> <BR />The Tories have the gall to talk about financial management and budgets here while the total level of debt in Britain is some £2·5 trillion. They have a mountain of debt but the cheek to lecture us.”
“We know that a huge portion of the blame lies with the Tories and their cruel and unforgivable approach to funding public services in this place. The Tories have collectively gutted some £500 billion from public services since they came to power in 2010. That is half a trillion pounds of public money — a staggering figure — the loss of which has led directly to a spike in the number of people going to food banks, homelessness figures going through the roof and people in their millions struggling in poverty. The Tories' Budget and the consultations launched by Departments were essentially a hit wish list through decimated public services and working-class people. <BR /> <BR />I and my party welcome the announcement from the First Minister that water charges will not come in as a secondary, separate charge.”
“We are given mere hours to scrutinise it and are then asked to rush it through. It is a return to the way it always was at Stormont.”
“<BR /> <BR />Over the years, we have heard a lot about the renewable heat incentive and the need to learn lessons about proper processes being put in place to ensure that public money is spent properly. Those calls have fallen on deaf ears. Too many times, I have heard in this stop-start Assembly, of which I have been a part, that accelerated passage is a special case or that there are extenuating circumstances, but legislation is being rushed through again today. Here we go again and again.”
“I have already said that the process that we are asked to endorse today — the spending of so much public money without knowing where it will all go or for what purposes it will be used — is totally absurd. It smacks of the new Assembly continuing in the same vein as its predecessors. There is a question over MLAs, especially those outside the Executive, having their say on the Budget Bill and being able to properly scrutinise it. We have been unable to do so. That is not to mention the members of the public who are constantly told that decisions are made on their behalf. There is no inclusion for them. The Assembly has failed the first test of its scrutiny role by rushing the Bill through earlier and being likely to pass it by tomorrow.”
“I recognise and welcome some of the Member's words, but, as the Opposition, he and his colleague have said some strong words against the Bill. Will they oppose the Bill?”
“Thank you, Minister. I urge you to make sure that the demand to take the lough back into public ownership is made categorically to the earl. What penalties do you think the earl should receive for the mismanaged decline of the lough? If you drop litter on the street, you are fined. There cannot be an exemption from fines for the mismanagement and decline of the lough just because somebody comes from the landed aristocracy. Do you think that he and his company should be liable for fines, given the state and the decline of the lough?”
“I do not know whether every MLA has read that statement — probably not — but I suspect that it will be news to a large number of public-sector workers — perhaps all of them — who may not get the full pay that they deserve. It is not just about scrutiny; it is very concerning for politics that the Assembly will rush through the Bill. We have already heard junior doctors express trepidation at the deal that they have been offered. How many other public-sector workers are facing the same situation? My concern is that this will possibly cement an insufficient pay deal for large numbers of public-sector workers, and the Finance Minister and other Ministers will say, "It is too late. It has been rushed through. Nothing you can do". For that reason, as well as the other reasons, I will vote against suspending Standing Orders.”
“We should be allowed the chance to dig into the detail. It is not good enough to rush these things through. What happened to not forgetting about the legacy of the renewable heat incentive? What about all the talk afterwards that we would learn how to properly scrutinise the use of public money? It seems like that lesson has completely gone out the window and that it is back to business as usual here, which is completely unacceptable. <BR /> <BR />We also have a concern that I want to dig into in more detail later. The Minister of Finance, in a written statement received by members of the Finance Committee, stated:”
“We are being asked to endorse an unacceptable process, and, for that reason, I will vote against suspending Standing Orders. We have a short time to scrutinise the Bill, which involves large sums of public money, and I primarily blame the Tories for not properly investing in public services generally but especially when this place was down. Obviously, the DUP is culpable for its two-year boycott. We have no time to really look at the detail. It is absurd. At the second meeting of the Finance Committee today, we had a briefing from an official at 12.00 pm, and, if things go according to parties' expected votes, we will have the whole thing done and dusted by tomorrow evening. Where is the time for scrutiny? There is none at all really. It is absurd. <BR /> <BR />We should not be playing fast and loose with people's lives and public money.”
“Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I hope that you do more of that as the session goes on. <BR /> <BR />Minister, I want to know your view on cutting corporation tax as part of your vision for the economy. Essentially, it is a Thatcherite view that, if corporate taxes are slashed, wealth trickles down, but it never trickles down; it always stays in the bank accounts of the wealthy. As he will know, the latest DUP-Tory deal document, 'Safeguarding the Union', mentions devolving corporation tax, presumably to reduce it. Are the Minister and his Executive colleagues rushing, clamouring and demanding to devolve corporation tax to reduce it? What is his opinion?”
“I know that the Member was not an MLA at the time, but does he agree that the Going for Growth strategy, which I believe his party signed up to, was an incorrect strategy that led to the growth of pollution in the lough? Will he encourage and support those who say that we need to move away from that strategy? Does he agree with that sentiment?”
“I am not an environmental expert, but I will take my direction from Mr Feargal Sharkey.”
“We need to end commercial dredging and reduce sewage dumping and run-off. We need rights of nature status for Lough Neagh. Finally, we need to bring Lough Neagh back into public ownership and allow it to be managed by the communities and workers who depend on it. <BR /> <BR />The Earl of Shaftesbury's ancestors stole the lough. He has profited from its destruction. He should not get a penny from it. The state should move to take it away from him. Lough Neagh is a vital natural resource that should belong to us all. The financial interests of a wealthy few should not come above our natural environment, our drinking water and the livelihoods of the many who rely on the lough. Musician-turned-environmental activist, Feargal Sharkey, said of zebra mussels:”
“<BR /> <BR />The bottom line is that, at every turn, Stormont's establishment parties ignored environmental concerns and effectively opted to destroy Lough Neagh when there was a quick, private profit to be made. It is good to see a motion that recognises the importance of Lough Neagh. I hope that it signals a change of tack from Stormont parties. I hope that the Minister who is now in charge — I wish him well — takes a different approach, but, if he does not, we will be ready to challenge him. <BR /> <BR />On behalf of the Save Lough Neagh campaign, I want to lay out some demands that could help to save this vital natural resource. We need an independent environmental protection agency with the power to hold polluters to account. We need urgent investment in research and a recovery plan.”
“Mr Speaker, as a former Minister, you were, obviously, in charge at that time, but the scheme was also signed off by Sinn Féin, the DUP, Alliance, the SDLP and the UUP. It must be said, Mr Speaker, that, as Minister, you also lessened the fines for those polluting Lough Neagh and its tributaries. <BR /> <BR />In the face of repeated objections, SDLP Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon also allowed commercial sand dredging at Lough Neagh that still stirs up the nutrients that choke Lough Neagh with the occurrence of toxic algal blooms. Stormont also refused to issue penalties for illegal sand dredging. I should also mention that the current First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, resisted calls to take the lake bed into public ownership. People will not forget the positions taken by former Ministers.”
“Ministers were repeatedly questioned about the destruction of Lough Neagh, about legal and illegal sand dredging and about the big industrial polluters who use our waterways as their own private sewer. <BR /> <BR />Rather than the problem being tackled, the destruction has been further fuelled by disastrous Stormont initiatives such as Going for Growth. That scheme, which was passed around a decade ago, incentivised the creation of industrial, factory-style farms that have been spilling their poison into our waterways ever since. In 2018, the waste produced by the pig industry alone was equivalent to the waste of 12 million humans. That is unbelievable stuff. Parties here were warned about the lack of infrastructure for dealing with the increase in waste, but they signed off on the plan anyway.”
“I have been proud to campaign alongside Lough Neagh communities and local environmental activists in the Save Lough Neagh campaign to demand action to resolve the unfolding crisis. One thing that is repeated by those activists is that the lough is not dying; it is being murdered. It gives me absolutely no pleasure to say that the Executive parties are responsible, in large part at least, for that killing. <BR /> <BR />It has been the years of government mistreatment and prioritisation of private profits that has driven Lough Neagh to the brink of collapse, threatening wildlife and important local ecosystems and poisoning the very water that we drink. The toxic algal blooms are just a visual representation of the danger that Stormont Ministers have repeatedly ignored. Environmental campaigners warned about the state of the lough.”
“People who I have stood with at protests should not give cover to "Genocide Joe", a man who is up to his neck in the slaughter of Palestinians and is jointly responsible for 30,000 Palestinians being killed. It is his money — finance from the US — that has allowed that slaughter to happen, so parties should not give cover to "Genocide Joe" this St Patrick's Day. Parties should not pose for pictures with him, and they should not give him a bowl of shamrocks while he is up to his neck in the slaughter. They should stand up for the people of Palestine. Free Palestine.”
“World leaders are funding, supporting and arming — they are complicit in what is happening. They should never be forgiven for supporting those crimes against humanity and against Palestinian people: let us say their names. <BR /> <BR />Last week, when we first sat, I urged MLAs to collectively call for a ceasefire and submitted a motion to that effect. That motion needs to be brought to the Assembly as a matter of urgency for us to discuss the issue and make it clear that we cannot operate as normal. We cannot continue as normal while genocide goes on in plain sight. <BR /> <BR />There should be no diplomatic ties with Israel. It should be boycotted. The Israeli ambassador should be expelled from this island. I make a sincere plea for people to boycott the White House this St Patrick's Day.”
“In recent days alone, we have seen ambulances targeted, health workers slaughtered in daylight, and the summary execution of six-year-old Hind Rajab, who was killed just after her mother and father were slaughtered. She was pleading for help. We have seen a mutilated child hanging from a building in Gaza. It is sickening, depraved stuff. Those are war crimes, paid for and funded by the West. It has never been about Hamas.”
“Sometimes, things are so barbaric and horrific to watch that we do not even know how to begin to speak about them — but speak out we must. I refer to what has been happening in Rafah and Gaza, particularly in the past few days. Nobody can deny that what is happening is the attempted annihilation of the people of the Gaza Strip. Israel has prepared a new genocidal assault on a civilian population of 1·5 million people who are already living under constant bombardment and are denied food, water and medical aid. They were told to go to Rafah to be safe; they are now being slaughtered and killed. <BR /> <BR />The genocide has reached new, depraved depths. It is unacceptable for this place to stay quiet about it.”
“The state must also plan for the provision of publicly owned childcare facilities where workers are given decent pay and terms to match the invaluable nature of their role. It is shocking that there is still no childcare or crèche facility in this Building, not just for MLAs but for all the staff who work in and around the Building who have children. It is absolutely shocking and beggars belief. <BR /> <BR />In a nutshell, we must take childcare provision out of the hands of wealthy private entities and ensure that we all, as a society, provide childcare for people, not profit.”
“Those who choose to do that job at home should be paid to do it. It is a difficult job, as people have mentioned. <BR /> <BR />That said, whilst we may differ in our reasoning in teasing out the issues, we believe that affordable childcare is a worthwhile and important aspiration and will support the motion, but we think that we can go further. We think that childcare, like healthcare or any other form of care, should be free at the point of service. There is enough wealth in society to provide universal free childcare that is paid for through progressive taxation. The conversation about childcare has to put our children's development, workers' welfare and families at its core and must remove the profit motive from its provision. The state must step in to support community-run, not-for-profit facilities in the crucial work that they do.”
“We need to move away from being fixated on seeing the issue of childcare as being solely or primarily about driving the local economy, rather than improving families' lives and improving overall living standards for everybody. Sometimes, the focus is overtly on getting people back to work, whether they want to go back to work or not. While it is true that many people want to return to work and should be afforded the opportunity to do so, many more are, in fact, forced to return to work just to pay bills. <BR /> <BR />The motion obviously does not acknowledge that the childcare provided by parents and guardians at home is, in fact, labour. It is, in fact, work, as some have referred to in their speeches. Raising children is an unpaid job, and it overwhelmingly falls on women to do it.”
“<BR /> <BR />There is no worse indictment of the current economic system than the fact that many working people are forced to pay for childcare. A commodity has been made of the nurture, care and development of future generations. The way that families pay out a huge bulk of their wages in childcare costs is shameful. Some providers can make a fortune doing something that should be a basic, publicly funded social necessity. <BR /> <BR />I agree with a lot that is in the motion and will support it. We need to tackle unaffordable childcare costs. Some of its content should cause further debate and teasing out. It is worth noting that some of the motion is written with economic growth and the market in mind, rather than having families front and centre.”
“Thanks for that, Principal Deputy Speaker. <BR /> <BR />I thank the parents, guardians, childcare workers and campaigners — some of them are here today — who have forced the issue of unaffordable childcare onto Stormont's agenda after years of government inaction. It cannot be emphasised enough that childcare costs are too high. They were too high before Stormont's collapse and too high before the cost-of-living crisis. It is high time that politicians and the Executive did something about it. In socially deprived communities like mine that have suffered years of attacks from Stormont and Westminster, we have stagnant wages, welfare reform and service cuts, to name but a few. Childcare costs are pushing people to breaking point and to the brink.”
“Gaelscoil an Lonnain, an excellent Gaelscoil in my constituency, is in a building that is totally unfit for purpose and has a high proportion of SEN pupils. Coláiste Feirste is oversubscribed by several hundred pupils. What assurances can the Minister give all Gaelscoileanna that he and his Department will treat them fairly when it comes to getting access to the required capital and resource funding? Gaelscoileanna have been left out of the past three capital build announcements by previous Ministers.”
“How can that be possible when refugees are being forced from their homes and forced to move to who knows where, with their children forced to leave school and their lives torn asunder. Human rights organisations and housing campaigners have already written to the Secretary of State calling for a ban on these evictions. This Executive need to support that call as a bare minimum and to ensure that refugees are afforded the opportunity to stay in the communities that they now are a part of. This Executive also need to decide whether they will stand over the Tories' racist hostile environment policy or whether they will resist implementation of it.”
“<BR /> <BR />The forced eviction of people who have fled war, poverty and persecution is reprehensible, and this racist Tory Administration have been ruthless and systematic in denying the rights of asylum seekers. While banned from working and living in absolute poverty, asylum seekers are routinely housed in appalling accommodation. Forced eviction would deny them what little rights they already have. <BR /> <BR />My question today is this: what are this Executive going to do about it? The Executive Office's draft refugee integration strategy claims to want a:”
“I am sorry to say that this is not an isolated incident. Like too many others, this family has been served notice by the private firm Mears, which acts under the direction of the racist Tory Government and their cruel hostile environment policy. Evictions are just one of the punitive measures meted out against asylum seekers and refugees. Essentially, we have a situation where families that are finally granted secure status are being told that they have to leave their home. It goes without saying that our party thinks that a private firm should not be allowed to profit from our asylum system. Such firms should certainly not be allowed to evict people out of their homes.”
“This morning, in my constituency, I was compelled to visit the home of a refugee family who were facing eviction from their home. I was there because housing campaigners in the Community Action Tenants Union (CATU) — fair play to them — had issued a call to the community to prevent that family, who came here fleeing war and persecution, from being put out on the street.”
“<BR /> <BR />Further figures show that Danske Bank's profits went up by 80% in the North last year. Profits have risen, but so, too, have people's mortgages. There is no relief for struggling people, while corporate profits boom. It gets worse for ordinary folk. The North's biggest businesses saw their sales soar by almost 17% in the past year, despite a cost-of-living crisis. 'Ulster Business' magazine's list of the top 100 companies showed that revenues grew by over £30·7 billion. There is a lot of money around the North. Let us get it and put it in the pockets of the people who need it.”
“It further called on Stormont to work to a managed overspend, if necessary, in order to deliver public services and to give public-sector workers a proper pay rise. <BR /> <BR />Those who continually repeat the lie that the money does not exist need to be challenged and called out. We know that the Tories gave corporations £11 billion in tax cuts in their autumn statement, yet the well-being of people in the North was worth only £3·3 billion. Stormont can, and should, overspend if necessary and challenge the Tories to sort out the deficit. If Stormont will not stand up for communities, ordinary people need to be ready to challenge it. The Executive should be looking over their shoulders at striking public-sector workers and others before doing the Tories' bidding.”
“The plan is Thatcherism on steroids: cut the profits of bulging, profitable corporations while throwing hundreds of millions of pounds down the drain — economic and political madness. <BR /> <BR />We further reject the idea that there is a begging bowl when we demand what people here need from the Tories. The money from London that was pulled out of here needs to be returned immediately. Executive parties must decide whether they will stand up to the Tories or simply do their dirty work. The amendment that I submitted, which, unfortunately, was not selected, would have committed the Assembly to rejecting harsh austerity measures, such as water charges, and to protecting working-class people, who are already struggling to make ends meet.”
“<BR /> <BR />When it comes to an overspend, which is mentioned in our amendment, I will remind people that the Executive had no problem overspending when it came to providing money to private healthcare providers, and there was no problem breaking the bank for the renewable heat incentive — hundreds of millions of pounds of public money up in smoke. We know that parties here have previously angled to cut corporation tax, which would take hundreds of millions of pounds out of the economy and public services. In addition, there is not one shred of evidence that that would bring a single job here. It was concerning to hear Mr Aiken's endorsement of that proposal.”
“There is a lot missing from that letter, which does not ease the fear that exists in our communities. We know that, a few months ago, the Secretary of State launched an attack wish list on people and communities here that he passed to Departments to consult on. It included water charges, prescription charges, higher university fees, abolishing free travel for people over 60 and more. New Ministers and the Executive must make their intent clear on those issues. I hope that they make the correct decision, but their track record on policy positions does not leave room for a lot of hope. People must be ready to take it to the Executive if they proceed with those cruel and anti-working-class policies.”
“Our message to those workers is this: if the new Executive, amidst all the sparkle and the pomp, do not award workers satisfactory pay, you must strike again, and you will have widespread support across the board if you do. No longer can it be acceptable that we have substandard pay while workers knock their pan in. No longer is it acceptable for services to be run on a shoestring budget and for people not to know whether they will have a service from one year to the next.”
“I support the motion and the amendment. There are certainly some points raised in the motion and the letter that we welcome, such as the issue of public-sector pay awards. I repeat that workers here have been underpaid for more than a decade. There has been divergence between pay for workers here compared with workers in Britain, but I note that there was no Assembly collapse from the DUP for those workers. <BR /> <BR />For too long, workers have been asked to stomach unacceptable wages. They did the correct thing by taking strike action in unprecedented numbers on 17 January. Some 170,000 public-sector workers downed tools and took strike action. They were right to do so, and they put significant pressure on the DUP to get back to work and on the British Government, who control the purse strings.”