NORTH FUNDING:BRITISH PRIME minister David Cameron will be guilty of dishonour if he fails to guarantee an £18 billion infrastructure fund pledged by his predecessor, Labour's Gordon Brown, Sinn Féin Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has said.
Mr McGuinness was speaking on the fringes of the Conservative Party conference in Birmingham, which he said he was attending “a very proud Irish republican”, who was working to “bring about all-Ireland solutions to our problems.
“I believe in working for Irish unity. I am here about jobs and investment and protecting the most disadvantaged in our society,” he told a meeting hosted by Champ, an organisation promoting peace and prosperity in Northern Ireland.
The event was held outside the security barricades protecting the conference, partly because of unhappiness about the presence of a senior Sinn Féin leader from some Conservatives, including former minister Norman Tebbit.
The IRA bombed the Conservatives’ conference in 1984, narrowly missing then prime minister Margaret Thatcher but killing five people including MP Sir Anthony Berry and Roberta Wakeham, the wife of MP John Wakeham.
The Champ event, chaired by Lord Glentoran, was to have been attended by Ulster Unionist leader Tom Elliott and Democratic Unionist MP Nigel Dodds, but neither appeared.
During sharp exchanges with Northern Ireland Secretary of State Owen Paterson, Mr McGuinness said, if confirmed, the cuts predictions would have “a disastrous impact” on the efforts to reform Northern Ireland’s economy, which is heavily dependent upon the public sector.
The remaining parts of the infrastructural fund agreed in 2006 and due to cover spending between 2005 and 2017 on capital projects could be cut in half. Northern Ireland politicians fear the cutbacks to be announced later this month by the chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne.
Speaking after the Champ breakfast, Mr McGuinness said he was “not surrendering” on the £18 billion pledge: “This was a publicly declared promise that he said was ringfenced and agreed. He uttered those words on the steps of 11 Downing Street.
“I remind people that the Irish Government, who are under massive financial pressure, have not dishonoured the commitments that they made to our Executive in terms of vitally important infrastructural projects. They are going ahead with it. This British government is duty bound.
"I absolutely do believe that if they renege on the commitments that were made they are dishonouring an agreement signed up with the Irish Government and the Executive. Economic circumstances in the South have changed but the Irish Government is honouring its commitments. The British government needs to do the same," he told The Irish Times.
Fellow Executive member and former UUP leader Sir Reg Empey said the economic crisis showed the benefits for Northern Ireland of being part of the UK: “If we were not in the union the problems that we are facing today would be infinitely worse.
“We are heading for some difficult days because we squandered the wealth of the nation over the last decade. Gerry Adams says that the £9 billion subvention from British taxpayers are crumbs from the table. Well, they are crumbs that many people would like to have.”
Former prime minister Gordon Brown made the £18 billion infrastructure pledge, he said: “But the small print was always the danger with [him]. Northern Ireland now has to be seen to play its part.
“If we turn the English taxpayer against Northern Ireland we will be in a worse state in the long run. We are not going to get a free run. We must play our part,” said Mr Empey, the North’s Minister for Employment and Learning.