The Assembly Executive is to award all politicians in Stormont a £5,000 pay rise from April at exactly the same time as implementing massive cuts to benefits which hundreds of thousands of workers, the unemployed, the disabled and the elderly rely on.
This comes after all the parties in the Assembly Executive agreed to “freeze” the pay of public sector workers for three years. With prices soaring, a pay freeze amounts, in reality, to a pay cut. The politicians in Stormont supported this cut, saying that they had no choice on the matter. But when it comes to awarding themselves £5,000 pay rise – no problem. The hypocrisy stinks.
At a time when health and education services are suffering major cuts in funding, Sinn Fein and the SDLP between them will use this rise in pay to pocket an extra £215,000 of public money into their party coffers! The Assembly parties have failed to deliver for working class people. It is clear working class people, Catholic & Protestant, need a new mass party to fight for their interests.
