Introduction

At the outset, it would be remiss not to acknowledge the Workers Party’s utter condemnation in relation to the massive 27% pay increase that the Independent Remuneration Board has recommended. Some have been willing to defend the indefensible, with regards to this £14,000 pay award which is higher than the average state pension. Arguments have been made by political pundits to justify this, and by the Board saying they bench marked it against the other political institutions across the UK and Ireland.

However, they have ignored the fact that these other institutions actually pass legislation during a normal parliamentary mandate and have not been on strike with full pay over a number years, have absolutely no accountability because of the nature of the mandatory coalition, and are protected against all wrongdoing by their respective parties, and therefore practically speaking are unaccountable to the citizens of Northern Ireland. This pay increase is another example of our politicians fiddling while Rome is burning.

As our Party has stated on many occasions, the Workers Party, while it welcomes progressive change and the introduction of concrete steps that improve the conditions and living standards of the working class and strengthens the ability of workers to have a real say in determining the conditions under which they work, believes that transformative change cannot come about in the framework of an exploitative and oppressive capitalist economic system which sees the minority appropriating for themselves the wealth produced by the working class. It is the view of the Workers Party that the type of change that workers need can only be achieved in a socialist society.

Accordingly, this Response to the Budget Consultation should be read in the context of our declared position that solutions for the working class cannot be found within the capitalist system. This Response is advanced in the spirit of that ideological position and the recognition that workers and their families as citizens of Northern Ireland have legitimate concerns and demands. The Workers party refuses to accept the parameters of proposals which amount, in effect, to bourgeois management of the economy in the interests of the capitalist corporations and their supporters. The Workers Party unreservedly supports the just struggles and demands of the working class to improve their immediate conditions while linking these to the goal of the socialist transformation of society.

The demands which are articulated in this Response are founded on clear working-class concerns, including the need for a fully state funded and exclusively public healthcare system free at the point of delivery and a free and publicly funded secular and integrated education system at all levels. A budget proposal which fails to address the pressing concerns of the working class and which is based on the capitalist global grand narrative that underlines the political positions of the Executive, however, cannot go uncontested. That is the purpose of this Response, not a suggestion for a better bourgeois management of the economy.

The Draft Budget document informs us from the outset that “the Executive’s Budget remains constrained”. While the legal constraints of devolution exist, the language of the document appears to accept imposed austerity as an inevitability rather than a political choice. As we will show in detail below, there is little sense in the devolved institutions challenging, resisting, or even explicitly naming the impact of capitalist austerity on working-class communities here.

To take one very important example, there is no substantive reference to poverty or the ongoing costof living crisis facing working-class households. Nor is there a clear budgetary acknowledgement to address the structural inequalities that drive poverty. Where support does appear, it is largely framed as mitigation rather than as a sustained commitment to reducing inequality or improving living conditions. Similarly, the budget also fails to address the critical lack of funding facing the voluntary and community sector.

As the Workers Party has noted elsewhere, poverty is inevitable under capitalism, and can only be ended under a socialist system where production is based on need rather than profit extraction, and the social surplus that currently goes into private coffers is used for the public good.

The underlying issue prevalent throughout the draft budget is that tangible critical success factors (CSFs) are neither stated nor are they to be backed up by any key performance indicators (KPIs); the draft budget does not provide what evidence is needed to achieve the goals it sets. This is an important criticism that runs throughout the document, and it is not one limited to one department.

The Workers Party is concerned by the apparent reduction or delay in earmarked capital investment for social welfare and support between 2028 and 2030, including social housing and Special Educational Needs provision, while so-called flagship projects continue to receive additional funding. This raises important questions about whose needs are being prioritised.

In addition, the proposed increases in the Regional Rate may strengthen overall revenue, but they will disproportionately impact those with the least disposable income, particularly households already struggling with rising living costs. The Budget does not offer sufficient protection or offsetting measures for low-income households affected by these increases. Below, we make recommendations on rates that would raise money - and not from workers.

This draft budget clearly demonstrates the inability of the Stormont Executive to engage in any real action, including revenue raising, which might threaten powerful monopolies and vested interests. This Budget document lays the ground for further attacks on public services, does not include any financial plans to deliver the “good jobs strategy”, the anti-poverty strategy, or for the childcare strategy of thirty hours of free childcare during term time for all parents, especially those in socially disadvantaged communities that would provide parity with every other region of the UK.

Nor does it show any evidence of providing the additional support for those with special needs, who will be leaving the education system in Northern Ireland, in line with the care plans until they reach the age of twenty-five under the health and social care systems in parity with the other UK regions. This budget is nothing more than a prescription for further austerity measures, and an increase in poverty, multiple5 deprivations, health inequalities, and homelessness, and a continuing housing crisis – a continued attack on the working class.

The document mentions that Northern Ireland has the lowest rates of pay, the highest level of workers on zero hours contracts, and precarious employment, yet they have not set a budget to introduce the new employment rights bill with the rest of the UK but are always ready to introduce cuts to welfare benefits to maintain parity with Westminster.