The word is that after donating £900 million to the Stormont coffers, Prime Minister Gordon Brown is likely to continue to look favourably on requests for further financial assistance, in the weeks and months ahead – to underpin devolution and the transfer of policing and justice powers.
But with the true cost of devolution having begun to emerge over recent weeks – the question is, can Northern Ireland we afford it?
We are already dependent on the mainland British taxpayer to the tune of £7 billion a year.
Without this money the Province could not function.
The overburden on public sector jobs – with their pull of the public purse – and the need for the private sector to be grown (at a time of global economic decline) only adds to a sorry picture.
And now, Ulster’s political leaders are having to beg at the door of 10 Downing Street for financial help, as a growing list of new items in the debit account grows.
Is this the outworkings of our politicians’ failure to secure a much talked about significant financial package to accompany the DUP-Sinn Fein power-sharing deal last year?
Is it poor financial planning in the first devolved Budget?
Are these simply harsh economic realities now coming home to roost, after the withdrawal of the Direct Rule-nanny state?
Or have we a case to make, when Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness tell Gordon Brown we have been dealt an unfair hand (under the Barnett Formula money handed down by the UK Treasury) which does not take account of the legacy of under-spend on public services that characterized the Troubles and is now having to be addressed by the Stormont Executive?
The truth may lie, as ever, somewhere in-between all of these points.
The fact is, though the Executive has yet to admit it, a black-hole is emerging in the public finances as one after another new and unforeseen debts mount.
**Executive assets (land and property) have plummeted in value over recent weeks, leaving a blank where projected receipts from sales was supposed to be.
**Water rates income is badly needed but the administration does not want to burden the public, at a time of spiralling living costs.
**The energy crisis demands attention, in the shape of a fuel poverty package from Stormont.
**The Civil Service back-pay requirement – £200 million – has been dumped in the Finance Minister’s in-tray, even though it is a hangover from Whitehall rule;
**The regional rates have been frozen for three years by the Executive, as a stimulus to homeowners but to the detriment of the Stormont finances.
**And now local councils are in £380 million of debt, and looking to the finance minister for help.
The list keeps growing, the economic climate looks darker by the minute, and you have to wonder how deep Mr Brown’s pockets are going to remain in the weeks and months ahead.
But with the true cost of devolution having begun to emerge over recent weeks – the question is, can Northern Ireland we afford it?
We are already dependent on the mainland British taxpayer to the tune of £7 billion a year.
Without this money the Province could not function.
The overburden on public sector jobs – with their pull of the public purse – and the need for the private sector to be grown (at a time of global economic decline) only adds to a sorry picture.
And now, Ulster’s political leaders are having to beg at the door of 10 Downing Street for financial help, as a growing list of new items in the debit account grows.
Is this the outworkings of our politicians’ failure to secure a much talked about significant financial package to accompany the DUP-Sinn Fein power-sharing deal last year?
Is it poor financial planning in the first devolved Budget?
Are these simply harsh economic realities now coming home to roost, after the withdrawal of the Direct Rule-nanny state?
Or have we a case to make, when Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness tell Gordon Brown we have been dealt an unfair hand (under the Barnett Formula money handed down by the UK Treasury) which does not take account of the legacy of under-spend on public services that characterized the Troubles and is now having to be addressed by the Stormont Executive?
The truth may lie, as ever, somewhere in-between all of these points.
The fact is, though the Executive has yet to admit it, a black-hole is emerging in the public finances as one after another new and unforeseen debts mount.
**Executive assets (land and property) have plummeted in value over recent weeks, leaving a blank where projected receipts from sales was supposed to be.
**Water rates income is badly needed but the administration does not want to burden the public, at a time of spiralling living costs.
**The energy crisis demands attention, in the shape of a fuel poverty package from Stormont.
**The Civil Service back-pay requirement – £200 million – has been dumped in the Finance Minister’s in-tray, even though it is a hangover from Whitehall rule;
**The regional rates have been frozen for three years by the Executive, as a stimulus to homeowners but to the detriment of the Stormont finances.
**And now local councils are in £380 million of debt, and looking to the finance minister for help.
The list keeps growing, the economic climate looks darker by the minute, and you have to wonder how deep Mr Brown’s pockets are going to remain in the weeks and months ahead.
