THE NORTHERN Ireland Assembly has rejected an Alliance call to seek £123 million in efficiency savings “through beginning to address the costs of division”.
The party said it would publish next week detailed proposals on how savings, demanded by last month’s British budget, can be generated from tackling division and segregation. North Down Assembly member Stephen Farry claimed that in terms of duplication, the biggest cost pressure comes within education.
“Northern Ireland pays a premium of as much as £300 million each year to have its sectoral education system,” he said.
“No one is suggesting moving to a one size fits all system, but all difficult decisions on rationalisation of the school estate will have to be made and sharing and collaboration between schools pursued more rigorously. Integrated education should be viewed as the apex of a range of options for sharing.
“It should not viewed as further fragmentation of an already fragmented system, but the most financially sustainable way forward.”
He said there were duplication issues to be faced by the Departments of Health, Social Development and Employment and Learning.
Junior minister Jeffrey Donaldson, defending the record of the Executive, said policy relating to community cohesion was under review. He said he looked forward to next week’s publication of Alliance proposals relating to the budget and the need for savings.
He stressed the Executive was committed to building a shared future for all communities in Northern Ireland, but he disagreed with SDLP calls for the Executive’s programme for government to be recast to take proper account of this aim. The SDLP’s amendment calling for this was defeated.
Mr Donaldson also deflected Sinn Féin references to the cost of partition in Ireland and said the downturn in the Republic underlined the case for the North remaining in the United Kingdom.
He also rejected accusations made by the Ulster Unionists that the DUP, Sinn Féin-led Executive was not committed to partnership.
Mr Donaldson said the UUP could not sustain criticisms that the two leading parties were failing to build a shared society.
The costs of division could not be addressed in isolation, he said. The two main parties were tackling the causes of division and no one should underestimate the scale of the challenge.