McGreevy Calls on NI Executive to Agree a Budget ASAP
October 16th 2026
Pat McGreevy, Workers Party representative for South Down, is calling on the Northern Ireland Executive to prioritise setting a budget so that public sector workers can have their entitled pay increases.
McGreevy is calling on the NI Executive to set a budget so that health workers including nurses can receive their pay awards. Pat said: “In this game of pass the parcel between the Executive and the Westminster Government, it is working-class people who are suffering the consequences of the failure of the Northern Ireland Assembly to function in the best interests of all its citizens and its much-needed services.
“The Workers Party says it is an indictment of our political leadership that the budget has not been set, and the blame game has been going on for months.
“It is disgraceful that public sector workers are now being forced to ballot on industrial action to get the pay increases that are due.
“In the case of health service workers, payment is long overdue.”
Pat McGreevy added that “the fact that MLAs are in line for another substantial pay increase will add injury to insult for those working-class people who are struggling to make ends meet and are having to use food banks on a regular basis.”
He finished by saying “it is time our political leadership stopped concentrating on their own narrow sectional interests and instead made the rights of workers and their families the priority.
“Put the interests of all citizens at the centre of all public policies … stop fiddling while Rome burns !”
McGreevy Calls For Nurses To Get Back Pay Now
Workers Party representative for South Down Pat McGreevy, a retired social worker, has called on the Northern Ireland Executive to pay Health Service staff what they are owed in arrears of wages immediately.
Mr McGreevy said that it disgraceful that senior managers, senior civil servants, and MLAs are due to get yet another substantial pay increase while health service staff are still waiting on their long-overdue pay increases.
Pat McGreevy, who has been selected to stand for the Workers Party in South Down in the next Assembly election in May 2027, said: “All we hear from the Department of Health is that they have not yet been given the funds to pay staff the increase they are owed.
“But they have allowed Trusts to spend millions of pounds on agency staff, outside consultants, private companies, and are still paying interest on private finance payments.
“All these decisions made by the people now getting thousands of pounds in salary increases were the architects of these disastrous decisions that have squandered taxpayers’ money and has created the crisis in the health and social care services.
“The good will and dedication of health service staff is being exploited, and they are suffering from burnout, yet day after day they continue to turn up to work.
“These staff are always last in the queue to be paid, but first in the queue to suffer from efficiency savings measures cuts to services and closure of facilities.”
He added: “All trusts are being asked to make millions in efficiency savings, but there is no fat left in the system support and other services have been cut to the bone while management structures have grown in number and salaries.
“The Health Minister must now ensure that not only are staff paid but they are treated as protected front line staff of all grades who keep our services going and our hospitals open.
“It is time their efforts were respected, recognised, and valued. So, cut the layers of bureaucracy not the staff and pay them now.”