Northern Ireland Assembly
Monday 12 June 2000 (continued)
Mr P Doherty:
A LeasCheann Comhairle. Given the urgency that is required to deal with these estimates, we support the Appropriation Bill. The fundamental problem is that this budget is not big enough. Although our society is emerging from conflict, it continues to suffer the social and economic consequences of that conflict. This is not reflected in the Appropriation Bill. The economic legacy of discrimination, inequality, conflict and injustice needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency.
The negative effects of partition have had a massive effect on the border regions, and the particular problems faced in rural economies also need to be addressed.
The transformation of an economy emerging from conflict requires fundamental change in the social and economic experience of people living across the Six Counties. That process must empower, and be led by local economies and local communities. We must promote the new concept of economic democracy. This means that local communities should have an integral role in the planning and running of their own local economies. Economic policy must and should be formulated from the bottom-up, not, as is the case now, from the top-down. We have to recognise that everyone has a right to a decent standard of living with proper housing and access to adequate health care and education services. We believe the aim of that economic activity is to make this a reality for all.
Of course, there is a great danger that if we do not find ways and means to increase the overall budget, the existing 10 Departments - or at least the eight Ministers that attend - will tend to vie with each other within that very limited budget. We have had some indications already of a very dangerous trend - other Ministries targeting the budgets allocated to health and education. That is not the way to go. The way to go is by finding ways of increasing the overall budget.
At the core of any budget is the creation of wealth. How do we create a more wealthy society? How do we develop right across the board the demands and the needs of local communities to access that wealth? One of the key agencies given the task of doing that is the IDB. The Enterprise, Trade and Investment Committee which I chair, examined the overall budget and identified the need for a bigger slice of the cake. However, the IDB, within that Department, must be made accountable for targeting areas of social need. It must create jobs, and not get into creative accountancy, which projects the image that jobs have been created. We must bring equality to bear effectively in many areas.
I have read IDB reports in which district councils like Moyle and Strabane come bottom of the league. In terms of investment I have often seen the figure zero. Jobs created - zero. Opportunities created - zero. All of that must change, and the way to change it is to take on board the political point made earlier that we are a society coming out of conflict - and to use that argument to increase the overall budget so that all of the Departments can, instead of targeting the two big Departments of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, and Education, actually get an increase in their budget.
Within the 10 Departments there are many areas which require expansion. There are some details that we were not given the opportunity to properly scrutinise, and I look forward to future budgets when we will have the time to do that. I urge the Minister responsible to seek ways of bringing to bear the core argument - that what we need is an overall increase in the budget to allow all the Departments to be adequately funded.
Mr Deputy Speaker:
We have done very well -10 Members in 90 minutes. That shows the frugal use of time made by Members, and I congratulate you on that.
The sitting was suspended at 1.00 pm.
On resuming (Mr Deputy Speaker [Mr McClelland] in the Chair) -
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Mr Dodds:
On a point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. The previous occupant of the Chair indicated that, by leave of the House, we could proceed to a debate on the fact that Prince Charles is not visiting the city of Londonderry today and tomorrow. I would be grateful if you could put that to the House.
Mr Deputy Speaker:
It would be possible to discuss that matter by leave of the House. However, the issue would have to follow the completion of this business.
Mr Close:
In many respects the exercise we are involved in today is like being the executors of the last will and testimony of a previous unaccountable regime. It is an educational exercise for all of us, as we must learn from the Estimates before us, by way of the Supply motion, and scrutinising them, how to prioritise matters in the interests of the people who have sent us here. That will be the challenge for us, not just today, but in future years when the exercise will become more meaningful. It is with those comments in mind that I turn to the Estimates for 2000-01 and go through some of the votes.
I do not have a tremendously deep knowledge of agriculture matters and the Department of Agriculture. As a layman, I am rather surprised and somewhat horrified that when I read about the difficult times agriculture has been going through in Northern Ireland over the past number of years-I read the very sad stories about farmers, the fits of depression, and the state in which they find themselves-to see, at vote A and vote B, that the amount of money being provided for agriculture is lower than that in previous years. In fact vote A is 38·4% lower. Again, as a layman, I must say that I find this amazing. One would have thought that when one of the largest employers in Northern Ireland, namely the agriculture industry, is in such difficulties that more money would be allocated to try to improve the lot of farmers and get them out of the financial difficulties in which they find themselves. Agriculture is one area where I would hope that when we come to be doing this job and are accountable to the people of Northern Ireland, the facts as they pertain and affect farmers today would be realised by the respective Minister, his Committee and within the Programme for Government.
As regards vote A of the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, I welcome the £2·8 million of grant and aid to the Sports Council for Northern Ireland. I do not think that we, as Members of the Assembly, can praise the excellent work that is done throughout Northern Ireland by sporting bodies too highly. Where there is so much division in Northern Ireland, sport is the one area that brings people together. Investment and development of sport repays itself more than ten-fold each and every year.
As regards the provision of money for inland waterways, I welcome the sizeable figure given, in particular, to cross border bodies, and I hope that we in Northern Ireland can learn something from the developments that have taken place in inland waterways in the South. I have a certain vested interest, insofar as the River Lagan and its associated canals run through my constituency. Lisburn Borough Council, through the provision of its new civic centre, has been doing tremendous work opening canals in the vicinity, and our goal is to extend the Lagan navigational system to its full extent. Once again, this is an area where the expenditure of money can in future years generate income through tourism.
I note the increase in the budget of the Department of Education, an area where investment in our youth cannot be overemphasised. Northern Ireland's future depends on the education of its young people and those in further and higher education. In the primary sector, it is exceedingly important that class sizes are reduced and that teachers have the tools with which to do the job. I hope those areas are to the fore in the new Programme for Government, with which I hope the Executive is well advanced.
I cannot help but notice the increase in funding for the CCEA, and I hope and pray that the moneys afforded to that organisation will help reduce the seemingly annual incidence of cock-ups in the setting and marking of exams - and the trauma they put our young people through.
I require some explanation on Vote B. I have no particular difficulty with money being paid, but the area is that of superannuation benefits and pensions. A sizeable sum of money is provided for, and whilst I accept totally that it has been earned, I wish to ask if we can anticipate increases of 33% year on year. Has a blip in the system at this time led to this £20 million increase?
I should like to make a brief comment on the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Vote A, for the IDB. I note that, while there is a reduction in this figure, there still seems to be an ongoing increase for land and buildings, and I seek an assurance that we are not adding to the bank of land or factories. We have reached the stage in Northern Ireland where we should be endeavouring to achieve a greater occupancy of land and buildings under the control of the IDB rather than extending their number. I seek clarification that no land bank has been added to.
Another aspect on which I have briefly touched in the Enterprise, Trade and Investment area is the amount of money allocated to tourism. That is an area where investment will be recovered, and the potential for growth in tourism in Northern Ireland - if stability takes hold - far outstrips anything else. That stability can in many ways be demonstrated by the way this House is seen to be working, and how we manage the economy in all its aspects. Finance should be allocated to this area with the expectation of greater returns than in the past.
While welcoming the increased expenditure of £17 million for roads in the budget of the Department for Regional Development, Vote A, I am appalled that the railways will have the rather small increase of £1·5 million, despite the fact that we have heard so much in recent days about the need for spending over £180 million on rolling stock. In anybody's estimation, the sum is small beer in the context of the problem, and I hope that when we deal with those issues ourselves, the Minister responsible will take the necessary steps to ensure that adequate finances are available.
Moving on to the area of higher and further education, the one issue that sticks in my throat is the marked movement from student grants to student loans. The education and library board's grants for student awards, including reimbursement of EU student fees, shows that the net out-turn figure for 1998-99 was £82·5 million. That has now been reduced in the current year to a mere £13 million, which is effectively taking £70 million out of the hands of our students. None of us can be satisfied with that type of exercise. We want to see a change so that once again - and I hope that this will be in the Government's programme - students will get an education, not so much because of their ability to pay but because they are given grants to enable them to pursue tertiary education. There can be no worse thing than teaching young people to get into debt. A little aside to that, Mr Deputy Speaker, is the burden that the repayment of these loans places on small business. Once again small business will be encumbered.
Mr Deputy Speaker:
I must ask you to draw your comments to a close.
Mr Close:
In closing, I must point out this has been our only opportunity, as elected representatives, to scrutinise these Estimates. Ten minutes is totally inadequate. One change that I hope will be made next year is that we shall have proper opportunities to scrutinise these Estimates fully.
Mr Tierney:
On that final point, Mr Deputy Speaker, your Colleague said this morning that speeches would not be 10 minutes this afternoon, but would be reduced to five minutes. What is your ruling on that, Mr Deputy Speaker?
Mr Paisley Jnr:
Further to that point of order. I understood the Deputy Speaker to suggest that it might be necessary to reduce speeches to five minutes. I hope - as every Member does - that we shall have as much time as possible to deal with very important matters that are before the House today.
Mr Deputy Speaker:
I think that you are quite right, Mr Paisley. The Deputy Speaker stated that the matter would be kept under review. I have a significant number of names at the moment, so I shall make that review in a relatively short time. I remind Members that for every extra minute they take, a minute is taken off somewhere else. I shall come back to this very soon.
Mr Leslie:
I shall start by following the remarks that Mr Close was making, but which he was unable to complete. We need to be aware that by the time the Appropriation Bill and the Estimates are put before the House, to all intents and purposes, we are looking at a done deal. There is a risk the same thing will happen again, so it is crucial that the departmental scrutiny - especially Committee scrutiny of the departmental budgets - commences in September, as soon as the Committees resume. Otherwise, we may again be confronted with rows of figures and with very little time to amend them.
We also need to bear in mind the fact that the next spending review will roll out a three-year programme of spending. It might be the last programme in which the generosity to the devolved territories, or the devolved regions, is the same as it is now. It is very instructive for this House to consider the agitation that there has been in Westminster about spending in Scotland, particularly given that Scotland could raise some money itself, if it chose to do so. I would not advocate that course of action, but it is sensible for this House to be mindful of the possible restraints that may come in its budget in the future.
However, if we can manage the affairs of Northern Ireland so that our own economy grows as it is doing at the moment and continues to do so at levels well in excess of those in the rest of the United Kingdom, this difficulty will become very much less because the proportionate tax being contributed to the Exchequer by Northern Ireland will inevitably go up.
There is quite a lot of speculation about the tax base in Northern Ireland. I was interested to find out from questioning officials in the Department of Finance and Personnel that no precise figures were available. It was not a calculation that the Treasury or the tax office has ever been minded to do, so the numbers that are in the public domain are assessments or estimates rather than statistically provable figures. We must be mindful that we are to a large extent spending other people's money and, therefore, must be good custodians of it. Money started in taxpayers' pockets. Then it went to the Exchequer, and when the Budget goes through at Westminster, the Government are given permission to spend that money. It is not the Government's money; it is our money and other people's as well. The sanction that the people have, at least in theory, is that if they do not like the way in which the Government spend the money, they can throw that Government out and try another one.
We must also be mindful that the money that we are spending on public services must be seen to give good value to the public because they are the people contributing to the money that is providing those services.
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In Northern Ireland our current public spending per capita is about 28% greater than the UK average, with the excesses particularly noticeable in health and in education. For that reason we must focus very closely on those Departments to be sure that are we getting extra results from the extra money. We do have extra problems; we have a larger number of school age children which is inevitably going to put a greater burden on the education system; and we do seem to have poorer health, a problem we share with Scotland. Perhaps it would be very useful if we could get our heads together with the people in Scotland and try to identify why that is and how we can address it.
I hope that those Departments involved in capital spending projects, particularly education, health and regional development, will be looking closely at sources of private finance in order to free up the public money that is available by way of private finance initiatives. In this, Scotland is well ahead of us. In Northern Ireland we have identified about £500m worth of projects for private finance initiatives; in Scotland, at £2billion, four times that level have been identified. We should try to be imaginative and progressive in that respect.
The Department that anyone represents is the one for which that person seeks more money. We must be mindful as we go ahead - and I am aware of the time left - that the cake may not increase very fast at all. Indeed, if inflation were to increase much over 2·5%, the size of the cake would go down. Each Department should pay a considerable amount of attention to whether the existing resources could be made to go further. In particular, some attention needs to be given to the amount of money being spent on administration. The Minister is aware of my concerns as I have already tackled him on this subject, but that was merely a skirmish. Since the Department of Finance and Personnel is responsible for the overall establishment of the Civil Service, I shall be looking to see whether he thinks any efficiencies can be made there with the view to getting the overall costs of administration down and saving money that can be spent elsewhere, and there are many demands elsewhere for greater spending on public services.
Mr Deputy Speaker:
I said that I would keep the timing under review. At the moment there are 21 Members scheduled to speak. If a few do not use their full 10 minutes, we can just about take everyone by 5.30. However, if more Members indicate a wish to speak, or if Members go on longer than 10 minutes, that will have to be reviewed.
The Chairman of the Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee (Dr Hendron):
I welcome the Minister's statement. I agree that the management of public spending is a fundamental responsibility of any Government. We must protect the interests of the public and ensure that their money is well spent.
I am wearing the little ribbon of the Carers National Association of Northern Ireland today, because this is the beginning of "carers' week". A document is being launched at Belfast city hall today. There are a quarter of a million carers in Northern Ireland, aged from eight to 80, looking after people with all sorts of disabilities and illnesses. These carers are the backbone of community care. There are major financial implications for childcare, so it is relevant to bring that up in this debate.
The Health, Social Services and Public Safety Committee has childcare among its top priorities. The rights of children are paramount, yet the boards and trusts are not meeting their statutory obligations. The Committee will be holding hearings on this subject over the next couple of weeks. Members who read 'The Observer' yesterday will have noticed the conclusion of a major United Nations report that childhood poverty in Britain is among the worst in Western Europe. The report alternates between "Britain" and "the UK", but I think that it applies to Northern Ireland. We know that there is high childhood poverty in Northern Ireland. For some children, main meals consist of things like toast and beans. Many of them live in terrible surroundings: damp walls, inadequate heating. They cannot afford the proper clothes. Bad performance at school is almost inevitable. Childhood poverty is a very serious problem.
There is a crisis in residential care, a lack of total beds and specialist placement. Inappropriate placement due to lack of quality placement options. Staff stress leads to exhaustion and demoralisation. We need investment now. Lack of key staff time can lead to a drift in planning for children's futures. As available staff are absorbed in crisis reaction, there is insufficient time for in-depth assessment and planning such as review of court work.
We need more social workers. Early identification and intervention with children requires a multi-agency approach. We should be targeting seven-to nine-year-olds who are starting to exhibit social problems. That is a strong indicator of delinquency at a later stage. We should be supporting our young families in co-operation with the voluntary sector. Respite for children with disabilities, support for young carers, including mental health - all of these have major resource implications and must be taken up with the Department of Health, Social Services and Public Safety.
The financial resources for hospitals are truly massive. I would like to see the Royal group of hospitals coming together with the City Hospital more quickly. We have debated maternity services, but there are other aspects that need to be faced. The south-west must have an area hospital. Members who live in the area will appreciate that. Decisions must be made soon. Again, there are major resource implications.
Reference was made earlier to Ards Hospital. I visited Bangor Community Hospital recently. It is outstanding. I would be sorry to hear of anything happening to Ards Hospital because I believe it is also very good. In the future we must sort out the hospitals. There are important financial implications. Our Committee has yet to discuss the question of primary care in Northern Ireland but certainly over the next few months that must be at the top of our agenda. The 'Putting it Right' document, produced by John McFall, is a new approach in which he has strongly suggested that co-operatives be formed with primary care groups taking in the various health care professionals. That is very important, and I hope that it will come about.
On cost implications alone there are far too many trusts, and major reductions can take place. Each part of the health and social care system impacts on every other part. On 29 March the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, having referred to £2 billion extra for the health service, which included tobacco duty of £300 million, mentioned five challenges for the health service. The first was the partnership challenge to end bed blocking. That is very relevant here in Northern Ireland, but it is not the time to go into the recent winter crisis, of which we are all well aware. The second was a performance challenge for good clinical practice that applies to doctors, nurses and so forth. The third, the patient care challenge, is to treat patients with serious conditions quickly. In Northern Ireland there are terrible waiting lists for people who are seriously ill, and operations have to be cancelled.
The fourth is to do with prevention. In terms of the healthy lifestyle to which the Prime Minister referred and of targeting social need, the health action zones along with the Health Promotion Agency have a big part to play. The financial allocations going towards health prevention are minimal. This is something else for further discussion. I appreciate that this is not the Minister's direct responsibility. It is the responsibility of the Department of Health and Social Services, but targeting social need, which was emphasised in the Good Friday Agreement, is cross-departmental. I believe that it is by way of health action zones, which are also cross-departmental, that we should proceed.
The fifth was to do with mental health care. One in seven visits their GP each year with a potentially significant mental health problem. Anyone can have a mental health illness, but with the establishment of primary care groups there will be fundamental challenges to the dominance of secondary care in this area. We must also focus on child and adolescent mental health. The subject of suicide may not be relevant here, but there were 1,027 deaths by suicide between 1990 and 1997. Of those, 793 were males and 234 females - frightening figures.
Reference was made to cancer today by the Minister of Health, Social Services and Public Safety, Ms de Brún. We have had a memorandum signed by the former Health Minister, George Howarth, the Minister in the South, and the Americans on doing major research. The Americans are prepared to put millions of pounds into research, but only if it is reciprocated here. That is very important, bearing in mind the number of people who die of cancer on this island.
Mr Hay:
I will speak on a subject which has already been touched on this morning by the leader of the Alliance Party, and that is the provision of natural gas to the rest of the Province, and especially to the north and north-west. Someone talked earlier about having a level playing field. It is very difficult to know which Department would have the responsibility for looking after a natural gas pipeline if such a project were to go ahead, but I know that the Minister of Finance and Personnel is au fait with the situation. It is something that he has talked about on many occasions.
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Members are well aware that natural gas came to Northern Ireland in 1997, and we all welcomed that. EU funding for the Scotland pipeline was £45 million, and £14 million was for the extension from Larne to Belfast. I recognise the very good work that Group 22 has done in spearheading the project and making a very good case for taking natural gas to the rest of the Province, with its social, economic and inward investment benefits. I must remind the House that if natural gas does not come to the rest of the Province, then one fifth of the population of Northern Ireland will be without the resource of natural gas. That would be sad.
I do not know what resources the various Departments have to try to move this project along. If the political will to move this project along is not there, then I believe that we will lose out on natural gas coming to the north and north-west of the Province. I do not need to remind Members that Coolkeeragh power station is to close in 2004. That is definite: the contract for electricity supply runs out then.
Political decisions must be made in the next few months if the project is to become a reality. Coolkeeragh power station is currently being run down. Members need to know if a decision will be taken in the next few months concerning the project. There has to be a lead-in time for the entire project, so it is vital that the political will is there to make the political decision that is needed. I must remind the House that a private consortium is very much on board and has bid for the licence to construct that gas pipeline. It is talking about investing over £200 million up front in the project. I have always seen the project as a private one, in partnership with Government. My information is that the project falls into line with EU structures, and that there has been no specific priority outlined in relation to the money. I understand that £40 million is needed from the European fund to try to get this project up and running.
What have former Ministers done about this project? Everything has been done by Group 22. The private consortium is very much on board, and some other interests have been taken on board. I understand that the regulator in Northern Ireland is very anxious that this project be moved forward very quickly. My fear is that the political will may not be there to do so. I understand that no political or financial case has been put to Europe regarding future EU structural funds.
This is a project that needs to happen. Decisions must be made in the next few months if the project is to be viable.
We know that Coolkeeragh power station is the main anchor tenant; that is already secured. It will take 75% of the entire supply, which is also important. Let us be clear, too, that if Coolkeeragh power station closes, it will not be economically viable to have a natural gas pipeline to the rest of the Province, which should have the choice of a new source of clean energy. I do not know which Department has responsibility for the project; it may be the responsibility of two or three Departments, but I want a Department to deal with the project, so that it can move forward. Let us hope that there is money available for the project to proceed as soon as possible and to show that the political will is there to do the job.
Dr O'Hagan:
Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. We are all aware that this debate has to go through an accelerated process, and because of the time constraints Sinn Féin will vote in favour of this Appropriation Bill. However, we have concerns. First, the suspension of the political institutions left little or no time for the Bill to be properly scrutinised by the different Committees. That is a shame, because the details of the Bill will affect everyone in the North of Ireland. It is all the more important because we are a society emerging from 30 years of conflict. During that time, a vast amount of money was spent on military and security budgets while there was a serious underspend in other areas, particularly health, education and infrastructure. There are serious social and economic issues to be tackled as a consequence. There is a legacy of discrimination which has existed for generations and needs to be redressed and which has left areas of the North severely disadvantaged.
For example, the Derry City Council area has the highest level of long-term unemployment since 1938. An economic development report published by the Council two years ago stated that Derry would need 12,000 jobs in five years just to bring it up to the Six County average. That is an example of the scale of the problems that face us all. The transformation of the war economy of the Six Counties into a productive and developed peace-time economy is vital. The Assembly can lead the way and initiate the fundamental social and economic changes that are required.
In order to bring about fundamental change, social justice and equality need to be placed at the heart of government. Targeting social need and policy appraisal and fair treatment must be placed centrally in all Departments, to ensure parity of esteem and equality of treatment. In this society, we should be providing well-paid, skilled and sustainable employment, education and training for all, and we must eradicate discrimination. There should be openness and accountability in all Departments, and we need comprehensive monitoring and evaluation processes. We also need effective planning, management and monitoring of economic resources and a more cohesive and integrated approach to the development of indigenous industry.
The Assembly should be to the fore in supporting the role of the community and voluntary sectors. We should support the participation of communities in local economic development, and on that point, I ask the Minister how much money has been set aside for the Civic Forum.
I now turn to the issue of EU funding. Again, in all of this we need absolute guarantees on the honouring of the additionality principle, and, by extension, we need full commitment, social inclusion, local development and conflict resolution in Peace II. Does the Minister and his Department intend to enshrine North/South co-operation as a horizontal principle in the context of the joint chapter?
In relation to delivery mechanisms - and again my party would argue the need to be capable of working in partnership with the local communities - they need to be representative, competent, committed to the ethos of the funding programmes and wholly transparent in their operations. In this context, would the Minister agree that to place the financing of this solely with district councils and take it out of the hands of the partnership boards would be a retrograde step?
Sinn Féin is an all-Ireland party. It argues that only by the creation of an all-Ireland economy, by the elimination of the economic distortions created by partition, by the attraction of foreign investment on an all-Ireland basis and by the harmonisation of financial incentives for industrial development will we go into a new society. My party wants to promote - and this Assembly should be promoting - a new concept of economic democracy which places people at the heart of the new social and economic system. Go raibh maith agat.
The Chairman of the Regional Development Committee (Mr A Maginness): Today we are faced with public expenditure plans inherited from the previous Administration. If we look carefully at what is being presented to us and reflect back on the way in which Government expenditure was, distributed during the sustained period of direct rule, we can see an historic neglect. There was a neglect of investment in our infrastructure, public services and in many areas of human activity. That is something that one should regret, for we are faced now with a situation where many of our public services have been starved of funding over a prolonged period.
It is for us as a new Assembly and a new Administration to address that historic underfunding. I illustrate that by reference to the Department of Regional Development - whose Statutory Committee I chair - and I refer in particular to three areas there where, I believe, underinvestment is emphasised.
The first concerns roads. Although the expenditure plans show that there are plans to spend £166 million, on looking carefully at the detail of those plans, one can see that roads maintenance is receiving 50% of what it needs.
If we do not invest in road maintenance - I am not talking about capital projects or infrastructural projects - then the whole fabric of the road network will deteriorate, so it would not be a saving to limit the amount of money spent on road maintenance. In fact, it would create a situation where we would have to pay for that in the long term by greater capital expenditure. We must address that, although obviously not in this budget. However, looking forward one year - indeed, three, four or five years - we should be addressing that type of issue.
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Take water, for example. Those of us on the Regional Development Committee were horrified by the Water Service's account of the state of the infrastructure which is needed for the collection and transportation of water throughout the system. The same problems apply to sewerage.
Massive works have to be undertaken to bring our public Water Service up to universally acceptable standards. Standards have been laid down by the EU, and we will have to adhere to them. We must not be found wanting. We simply have to invest more money in the Water Service. If we fail to do this, not only do we fall foul of the European Union, but we are also putting the whole population at risk. Besides creating potential health problems, a situation would exist in which development of housing and industrial projects would be restricted, because we would not have the necessary infrastructure to support their development.
Again, there can be no savings there, and although the amount of money being spent - £188 million - seems a lot, representing an increase of 8%, it is still insufficient to tackle the continuing need in the Water Service.
Let us look at public transportation. The amount of money earmarked for expenditure this year is £32·9 million. Last year it was £33·2 million. That represents a decrease. I understand that there will be fairly substantial receipts which should compensate for that real reduction in expenditure on public transportation. However, public transportation is an essential feature of any modern transportation policy. If you do not have a quality public transportation service for the community then you will be unable to end traffic congestion, and the road system will further deteriorate. If you do not invest in public transportation you are, in effect, creating greater transportation problems right across the community.
There are also very serious safety implications. I refer in particular to the railways - an issue which has been referred to by several Members. In March, the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company produced a strategic safety review of Northern Ireland Railways. This review indicated that, although the safety standards were adequate, they were just adequate and nothing more. There is not just a long-term problem, but certainly a medium-term problem, and perhaps even a short-term problem with regard to safety. We need to invest sufficient funds in order to address the fundamental issue of safety on the railways. If we do not address that, the inevitable will occur, and we will suffer line closures.
The amount of money that the Northern Ireland Transport Holding Company indicated was necessary for upgrading and bringing our railways up to a safe standard, for providing new railway stock, and for carrying out capital programmes, was £183 million. That is a massive amount of money, which will be required over the next 10 years.
Members will have to apply their minds to dealing with the problem of public transport and the railway system. We ignore these issues at our peril. One way of dealing with the matter is to involve private financing, and we shall have to look long and hard at the issue of public/private financing. Another way is to lease the rolling stock and the trains that are necessary for the system. We must be innovative. If we are not, we shall be failing in our duty to the public.
We need to take a radical look at the question of finance, because the Northern Ireland block is not infinite. It will continue for the foreseeable future but, in the medium term, may well be reviewed by the Westminster Government. We must look for alternative sources of finance, which is a serious challenge for all Assembly Members.
Finally, I believe that we have a wonderful opportunity, both in the Assembly and through our Committee system, to scrutinise properly and bring all of these issues to the public, and we should do that diligently and efficiently.
The Chairman of the Environment Committee (Rev Dr William McCrea): I welcome the opportunity to participate in this debate and to inform the House that the Environment Committee, of which I am Chairman, has considered the budget implications on the services - or lack of them - that will be provided to our citizens. The Committee noted that the budget reflects the public expenditure plans inherited from the previous Administration. However, we are deeply concerned that the budget has declined in real spending power compared with 1999-2000, and this part of the United Kingdom will suffer the consequences of that lack of funding.
The Committee is concerned that inadequate provision has been made to enable the Department of Environment to meet many of its regulatory and statutory obligations in the current financial year. We outlined to the Minister at a recent meeting some of the concerns that have been expressed on the budget. For example, we mentioned the inability of the Department, because of the lack of funding, to meet many of its legislative requirements and the associated risk of Northern Ireland infringing EU directives. That has serious implications about which we are deeply concerned.
Another major concern is the underfunding of road safety and the shortage of road safety education officers. That must be redressed, otherwise the safety of our children will be adversely affected. In our deliberations, we in the Environment Committee expressed our pleasure that the Public Accounts Committee is undertaking an inquiry into the report on road safety from the Comptroller and Auditor General in November 1999. That is a matter near and dear to the hearts of many members of the Environment Committee. We genuinely believe that there is a total lack of urgency in the matter and that the Department of the Environment could, even with its budget, find financing to enable appropriate numbers of road safety education officers to be employed as a matter of urgency.
There is also a serious backlog in area development plans and planning applications, and the list seems to get longer. We are told that the reason is the lack of departmental officials to deal with the area plans, which are totally out of date.
Many of them are considerably out of date and will therefore be stopping or impeding the progress and development of the particular district council area.
The Committee is pleased to learn that the Department of Finance and Personnel has now agreed that the planning service can spend £850,000 from receipts to recruit extra staff to process planning applications. We would urge that Department to carry that forth immediately, because those staff are needed urgently.
In the Environment and Heritage Service, there is also a backlog in the transposal of EU directives into Northern Ireland legislation. This also gives rise to the risk of infraction procedures by the EU. The Committee is also pleased that the Department of Finance and Personnel has now agreed that £1·25 million from receipts can now be spent on staff engaged in the new regulatory functions in the Environment and Heritage Service. We hope that, in future, there will be detailed consultations much earlier in the year - as we believe there can be - because we would have liked to have had a more in-depth contribution to make to this budget. The Committee will then, of course, have the opportunity to influence the overall financial allocations to the Department.
The realities of government are now dawning on many Members, and I have no doubt that they will continue to dawn. I have rightly heard Members constantly raising, as I will, the fact that we simply need to invest more money in different aspects of our public services, and we therefore need additional funds. It is not that our Government at Westminster have a lack of funds in the Exchequer's pot, because I believe that they are endeavouring to build up a war chest ready to hand out a list of goodies on the mainland to buy their way to a second term of office at the next general election. Of course, they will have no candidates in Northern Ireland, and therefore I am deeply concerned that they will not be overly troubled about meeting the needs of our constituents. So, although many promises have been made - especially by the pro-agreement parties - that if the Assembly got its hand on the finances, on the wheel, it was going to work miracles, those same promises will lead to frustration and disillusionment because some of them cannot be realised in the foreseeable future.
I believe that there is a need for extra finance, and that is the only way that we can meet the requirements of our constituents. For example, there is an urgent need under the budget for regional development for a bypass around Cookstown and around Magherafelt. I have been a councillor for 28 years, and we have been listening to talk of a bypass for Magherafelt being on the 15-year programme. In fact, it has now been removed from the 15-year programme after about 15 years. It has been put on the long finger. The Department must be given additional finances to meet those needs.
I thank my hon Friend for the urgency with which he sanctioned the commencement of the Toome bypass. I am delighted that he was able to bring good news to the people in the west of the Province, who are faced daily with long queues to get over the Toomebridge. But when you go up the M2 and come to the Sandyknowes roundabout, you face further queues, so that is another urgent matter to be dealt with.
In the Department of Education budget, there is an urgent need for finances to give proper education to children in rural schools like Churchtown and Toberlane, bearing in mind that a shadow has been cast over them for a number of years with the threat of closure. It is about time the Department of Education removed that threat from these excellent teachers, and the pupils, who have attained excellent education results, with many going on to be head boy or girl in our principal colleges.
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I believe that the threat should be removed, and these schools should be allowed to give an excellent quality of education so as to attract many other children into them. I know that they can, and I know that with the backing of the Department they will.
Another problem is in the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. When is the money that has been talked about for so long going to come to the farmers? We have heard about money, new money, and extra money. When will the farmer actually receive this money? When will he stop dying in debt? Promises, promises. When farmers go to the bank, they again find themselves constantly under pressure, because although actual money has been promised, little or none is being made available to them to keep them out of Stubbs Gazette. It is an absolute disgrace that money has not been made available to the farming community. Many are the problems within this area.
There is a need to secure the future of the Mid-Ulster and Whiteabbey Hospitals and to ensure that the Northern Board is able to give them the proper finances to work along with the central area hospital in Antrim to provide an excellent service to the vast community they serve. Many are the needs. We need the finance to do the job.
Mr McHugh:
Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I welcome the Minister's statement, and I would like to address a number of issues in relation to the whole remit of finance and how the budget will be spent next year. My particular interest is in agriculture and rural development, and in the fact that the money has been cut rather than enhanced. I would have thought that at this particular time there should be an increase in funds instead of money being taken away.
It seems there has been a 9% cut since the last budget. At this time of transition, and in a phase during which we are reaching a new future, we need extra funding for many aspects of agriculture and rural development.
The agriculture base is presently being eroded. If we are to have a future in which young farmers want to get involved in agriculture, or a future in which we have an agriculture-based industry, which is still the main industry in many areas such as Fermanagh and south Tyrone, we have to invest in the infrastructure itself. We have to invest in on-farm infrastructure, and in capital funding in the structural base, which has not happened for a number of years. We have not been getting capital funding from Europe or elsewhere, and the British Government have not been looking for capital funding for the farmers of this area either.
If we were to benchmark ourselves, or the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, against those in the South and look at the results and the differences between farming there and the conditions in which their farmers operate compared to ours, we would see that there is no commitment from the British Government to farmers in the North. In the South, there is full commitment to the farmers, in terms of money, structural funding, the application of money, and through policy.
Those are distinct differences that I would like to see changed. However, I would like to see changes being achieved through the better use of our finances - not by taking away money that was going directly to farmers and putting it into another fund which may or may not return it to the areas in which it is needed. Quite a large amount of this money ends up being allocated to outside areas, and it is drained away from the areas for which it was intended. That is something from which we have always suffered.
A vision group in the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development will look at the whole situation regarding where we are, in terms of agriculture and rural development, and where we want to go in the future. The aims, objectives and actions of that group need to be resourced. If the group comes up with a strategy, that strategy will need to be implemented if we are to make any impact at all. We need resources to do that. It may be that the Department will need to move resources, perhaps away from administration and over-administration, in terms of paperwork that farmers and everyone else are involved in. That may be the best value for money in terms of implementing the strategy.
There must also be a change in the mindset of the Government and those who work in planning rural development and sustaining many of the projects and initiatives that communities in rural areas have come up with to this point. In a few short years, we shall be faced with the difficult situation whereby many of these projects, which, having built themselves up, are now quite good, may fail because the money and technical expertise they need will not be there to support them. In other words, they will be unable to continue when the European money finishes.
Another point with regard to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is the scrutiny that we can bring to bear to achieve accountability in funding - indeed, beyond the point where the Department gives funds to a particular group. We must see that there is value for money and accountability on how that money is fed down, who gets it, and how it is handled. We must seek best practice in, and be able to justify, the use of the money.
The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development has a great impact on areas west of the Bann, and in particular in Fermanagh and South Tyrone, with its planning policy. 'Shaping Our Future' has yet to reach its final draft. Our concerns are always listened to, but perhaps not always acted on. We ask that they be taken account of in that document's final draft, since many of our concerns in areas such as those west of the Bann are well-founded.
The difficulty in mindset is also evident in issues such as health services and housing, which has seen a £13 million loss this year alone. I should like to know roughly where that money will come from. There is a long waiting list for replacement dwellings, and year on year it is becoming extremely costly to keep people waiting before we can get on with the jobs and building progress. That is a serious question. The other issues are roads, transport corridors and the emphasis on development and where it is to take place. There is a mindset difficulty.
When deciding where money should be spent, there is a notion that rural areas should be kept the way they are and that development should take place in the larger, metropolitan areas of Belfast and Derry. We should be working on cross-border rural policies which are of an all-Ireland nature. The last Member to speak mentioned the difficulties we have with doing things over here and the fact that the final answer may not always do very much for us. We may not have as much control as we imagine.
We should be looking to all-Ireland policies - having control of our destiny in its entirety and using cross-border collaboration and co-operation in funding. Perhaps we should ask the Southern authorities to put money into the roads and main transport corridors. Once again I am thinking in particular of Fermanagh, where there are directions through Sligo if one wishes to return to Belfast. There is an argument for asking the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development to go to the South and ask it for some money, since it seems to have plenty. Cavan has £8 million, while Fermanagh's budget is extremely small.
Someone mentioned an increase of 50% as the sum required for the upkeep of roads. We have probably several hundred per cent too little for the upkeep of the road structure in Fermanagh. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, also needs to reverse its thinking on enterprise and investment, particularly in rural areas such as Fermanagh and South Tyrone. There is a tendency to send potential investors to Belfast and the greater Belfast area rather than to us, in spite of the fact that we are an area where tourism could be used to bring us out of our present crisis.
Tourism, while it has a lot going for it, will not replace our base industries, nor will it replace full-time, well-paid jobs as against seasonal and low-paid jobs, which is mostly what people will get from tourism. The other aspect of tourism, and indeed trade and industry, is that we can have tourism used as a millstone round our neck. If we are to have a nice environment, like Fermanagh, and keep that environment beautiful so that people can come from Belfast and urban areas to look at it, we cannot have our heavier industries. Employers like Sean Quinn are the industries that keep areas like that going. If we were to go down the road of tourism only, we would stifle that type of development. We would have to ask whether that was a benefit or not.
With the IDB, there is also the accountability factor given the recent criticisms of the number of jobs created. Job promotions will not take the place of real jobs. I would like to see real jobs on the ground rather than talk about job promotions. I am very dissatisfied with the IDB's recent returns.
That is all I want to say, a Cheann Comhairle. Go raibh maith agat.