There is a better way

By Gerry Kelly
It came as no surprise to me that when Sinn Féin strongly resisted proposals of massive cuts to the North's budget by the British Treasury that the DUP instantly took the opposite position of acceptance of cuts with Sammy Wilson's often personal views on where the axe would fall.

As we engaged with the other parties robustly challenging their logic of meek compliance with the cuts agenda, Sinn Féin managed to drag the DUP onto our negotiating position culminating in Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness's joint negotiation in London where together they resisted the repackaged slash and burn approach of that thinly disguised old Tory agenda.

The Assembly does have it's role to play in leading our way out of this recession but it isn't through dismantling the public sector nor increasing unemployment and
slashing vital services for deprived communities.
We must invest our way towards the future whilst implementing logical savings through the modernising of our economy and reinvesting in front line services, jobs and business.

Sinn Féin can stand on our record of consistently battling against bureaucracy and waste. For example, the Review of Public Administration, which would have reduced the number of Councils from 26 to 11, alone would have saved upwards of £400million and the introduction of the Education and Skills Authority another £20million per year. However the DUP continue to block these savings for their own narrow political ends.

Vested interests in the gravy train of the North's myriad of quangos continue to resist change whilst offering no alternative other than attacks on the most vulnerable and service cuts, including removing home help workers tending to our older people.
All-Ireland integration of services combined with European investment can provide real tangible and constructive alternatives to the right wing agenda of dismantling the public sector.

Upwards of 90% of the North's businesses are SME's (small and medium enterprises) employing less than ten people. It is through investing in the growth of this sector that we can assist in lifting ourselves out of the financial crisis.
Sinn Féin was instrumental in the hugely significant step of the establishment of the European Task force for the North, which has been of great help at this time.
Maximizing access to finance for individuals facing uncertainty in the job market and at-risk groups, including those seeking self-employment, is vital to creating opportunity and encouraging enterprise.

It's essential that financial intermediary organisations and micro finance providers such as credit unions, local savings banks, smaller development banks/institutions and selected local commercial banks avail of opportunities such as the newly introduced €500million EU micro finance scheme.

They will then be able to provide loans or credits to individuals or micro-companies of up to a maximum 25,000€ per loan. Obviously, this has the potential to become a lifeline for small firms struggling in the recession and a vital start-up opportunity for others at a time when finance is increasingly difficult to secure.
Demonstrating fiscal competence doesn't mean complying with the current conservative reactionary agenda of cuts. Those that are most resistant to change remain the very same people that wallowed in the excesses of deregulation and who are now presenting the bill for the financial crisis to us. Sinn Féin's alternative vision is investing our way to a better future.