Northern Secretary Peter Hain will cut the number of departments running the North if the parties can't agree a deal to restore devolution by the deadline of November 24th set by the British and Irish governments.
Mr Hain, in what was billed as a keynote speech at Stormont yesterday, laid it out before Northern politicians that if they couldn't share power, direct rule ministers would push ahead with running Northern Ireland.
He said the public was becoming "increasingly fed up" and wondering were Assembly members up to their jobs. If they weren't, Mr Hain said he would run matters "my way".
The Northern Secretary said that the Northern parties now had an opportunity to build on what he said were the foundations created by direct rule ministers and to transform "Northern Ireland into the world-class place it could, should and deserves to be." Under the current system a restored Northern Executive would have 10 ministers and departments plus the Office of First and Deputy First Minister run by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister.
Mr Hain said such a large cabinet was not sustainable in the North and that the number of departments should be reduced. He refused to specify how many departments should run the North but said that if the parties could not agree how to restructure government by November 24th that he would take the decision to cut departments.
"Following implementation of the review of public administration, a number of departments will simply be unsustainable in their current form," he said.
Mr Hain challenged local politicians to take advantage of the "unique opportunity" to spend a huge multi-billion budget to tackle key social and economic issues, rather than leaving this work to direct rule ministers.
"By 2008, total government spending here will exceed a record £16 billion (€23 billion), a jump of more than 50 per cent since 1997. Of this, health spending alone will top £3.8 billion by 2008 - up from around £1.7 billion in 1997 - to now account for over 40 per cent of our entire Northern Ireland budget," he said.
"And since 1997, education funding has increased by more than 60 per cent, at a time when pupil numbers have been falling, and will reach £1.7 billion by 2008. This investment, alongside the hard work and dedication of our public sector workers, is helping to boost education results and bring down hospital waiting lists." Mr Hain added, "It is now over to the local politicians to grasp the opportunity of November 24th to take this forward and make Northern Ireland one of the most forward looking, highly skilled, prosperous and confident regions in the UK."
Sinn Féin economy spokesman Mitchel McLaughlin said Mr Hain's speech was a "self-serving attempt" to justify bad decisions such as imposing water charges, increasing rates and causing a crisis in health and education.
DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson said the proposal to cut departments was in line with his party's policy. "Northern Ireland is straining under the size of the public sector and the bureaucracy it breeds," he said.
