Pat Lawlor of the We Won’t Pay Campaign stated
“All the parties in the Executive are arguing for a huge cut in Corporation Tax which will amount to hundreds of millions of pounds every year being awarded to big business. At the same time they are planning to introduce an annual average water charge of £400 on householders even though we already pay for water through the rates.
The criticism of the Assembly parties comes after a recent statement by Minister for Finance Sammy Wilson referring to water charges on the BBC that “we have got to make sure when they are introduced, they are introduced on the basis of fairness.”
Mr. Lawlor added “Water charges have nothing to do with investment in the water service. Charges are inextricably linked to the privatisation of the service which will lead to profiteering at the expense of ordinary people.
“The We Won’t Pay Campaign is continuing to campaign against the introduction of water charges in any form and will organise a mass boycott of the charges if introduced.
Warren Buffet, one of the richest men in the world said earlier this year that “There has been class warfare going on... and my class isn’t just winning, I mean we’re killing them”.
On the 9th March the Northern Ireland Assembly voted through a cuts budget which will strip £4 billion from the economy in the next four years. This attempt to make workers and young people pay for the debts of the bankers and speculators will have dire consequences in the North, where the public sector accounts for a third of employment and two-thirds of economic activity.
The fight to save Playzone, an after-schools service located in the Ballymac Centre in East Belfast, has reached a critical stage. The Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister have only offered a three-month emergency package after the Department of Health cut funding to the project. With Playzone costing the executive a paltry £60,000 a year, long term funding for the project must be secured.