THE STORMONT Assembly has finally passed the controversial budget that addresses £4 billion (€4.7 billion) in cuts in public spending over the next four years.
Ulster Unionist and SDLP members voted against the budget, and amendments put down by them, calling for an Executive rethink, were defeated.
Under Stormont rules, Ministers who vote against the budget could be accused of being in breach of their ministerial code. However, it is understood no disciplinary action will be taken against either the Ulster Unionists or the SDLP by members from the larger parties, the DUP or Sinn Féin.
The Assembly is to be dissolved on March 25th in time for elections in May.
There were sharp exchanges between members during a seven-hour debate that, at times, was acrimonious.
Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson said he had taken every chance available to ease the blow of spending cuts, and he accused the SDLP and Ulster Unionists of having no alternative, costed proposals.
“I have said many times that I would welcome all new ideas but sadly nothing realistic has emerged from my loudest critics,” he told the House. “Any ideas that have emerged are often contradictory or display a profound degree of ignorance of the public expenditure regime. So, unlike my critics, I didn’t have the luxury of being able to construct a budget that wasn’t earthed in reality.”
Mr Wilson heaped criticism on Ulster Unionist Minister for Health Michael McGimpsey who has repeatedly criticised the DUP-Sinn Féin-led Executive budgetary plans. “I still find it disgraceful that the Health Minister can seek to justify his action, or maybe rather inaction, in the media when he has never approached his Executive colleagues with any plans to make the health service delivery more efficient,” he said.
He accused the Ulster Unionists over their electoral alliance with the British Conservatives at the last Westminster election and of supporting their policy of making the sharpest cuts in public spending.
Ulster Unionist deputy leader John McCallister countered, claiming the DUP was ignoring the global nature of the economic downturn. “The DUP would have you believe that the economic problems afflicting Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom began on the 6th of May 2010,” he said. “I and my party have not joined in the siren calls to ‘resist the Tory cuts’ and to ignore what is a reality.”
Sinn Féin said the budget was a “credible beginning” to the task of making up the cuts imposed by the treasury in London while defending those most in need.
Finance spokesman Mitchel McLaughlin accused the SDLP and Ulster Unionists of a destructive approach in the pre-budget consultation period. “They have sought to divide where others have sought to develop a collective approach,” he said.
SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie said the budget “punishes low-paid workers, students, teachers and schoolchildren, the construction industry and those who depend on our health service. It crudely dismisses the advice of all our independent commentators. It is a 1970s Tory cuts budget from two parties still rooted in 1970s politics.”
Mr Wilson accused the SDLP of “shoddy opposition” and of protesting publicly but knowing in its heart that the budget was the best possible in the circumstances.
The Alliance Party voted for the budget. Spokesman Stephen Farry said it was far from prefect but, “We recognise that we are part of a five-party Executive, and that the budget has to be the product of negotiation and agreement.”
He added: “Alliance joined the Executive last April determined not to play political games. We were not only going to provide a Minister of Justice but to play a full part in collective decisions.
“We were not going to be a party to try to be both in and out at the same time.”