The Draft Budget has been put out for consultation before the departmental and party-political horse trading that will probably result in significant changes to the final document. What will not change is the continued austerity that this budget promises While in nominal terms, departmental allocations increase over the 3–4-year period of the budget, as Agenda Ni notes “in real-terms growth is modest at best. For departments with demand-led services, particularly health, education, and justice, this means that multi-year certainty does not necessarily translate into service stability”.

The Minister, John O’Dowd, said that “any spending increase in one area will inevitably mean a reduction in another”. Sam McBride is correct to note that this zero-sum approach is “the essence of right-wing fiscal policy: he [O’Dowd] isn’t even prepared to countenance finding the money he says public services need from those who could pay”.

Even within the framework of a capitalist economy to which the Northern Ireland Executive subscribes it is clear that the draft budget offers no solutions and is unable to address the multiple problems facing the working class. For example, the Workers Party identifies over £500 million in potential annual revenue or savings through the removal of rates reliefs, the domestic cap, and consultancy fees. In addition, the introduction of devolved tax raising powers of the kind that currently exist in Scotland and Wales and demands that any grants to business be tied to mandatory union recognition are not even considered.

These are not the revolutionary changes that Ireland (and the world) requires, but if the Stormont parties are at all serious about dealing with our crumbling welfare system and infrastructure and with the poverty and deprivation that continue to blight Northern Ireland, (which they are not) they have to begin an immediate programme of redistribution and reconstruction. Alternatively, Stormont can continue to tell us -as it has for decades- that some of the billions made in high-tech clusters, construction of luxury accommodation, and tourism might trickle down to the working class. Of course, such a programme does not sit with the profit driven capitalist agenda.

Below we set out our socialist response to what amounts to an austerity budget for workers. Workers have been told to tighten their belts for decades. It's time not to.