As the Northern Ireland Assembly reconvenes there currently are a number of serious, specific situations which will affect the quality of life of people right across the community.
One of the priorities for the NI Executive after the election was to agree and publish a Programme for Government (PfG) for the next four years. It has not yet been published. Economist John Simpson has commented, “The Executive annual budget is set. Any appeal to the Treasury for a more generous settlement would get a frosty reception. The PfG must plan to get the maximum benefit from reduced spending. Sammy Wilson knows that the Executive must do more than simply say to each of the other ministers ‘do your best’.”
Yesterday, the Belfast Telegraph stated that the Northern Ireland economy in respect of public overspend per person was twice as bad as Greece. That is how serious the situation is. Public debt per capita in Northern Ireland also outstrips the rest of the UK.
The current economic situation in Northern Ireland is affecting key areas of society such as university education, the health service and child poverty.
University fees are a critical issue in Northern Ireland. Since the introduction of UCAS and its the central system for university applications, coupled with the rationalization of the provision of courses at universities throughout the United Kingdom, a significant number of young people from Northern Ireland have migrated for third level education
The differing policies in England, Wales and Scotland have produced a widely different scale of university fees in the four home countries. There is no clear indication as yet regarding the scale of fees for Northern Ireland students at the two local universities, and in consequence there is a certain amount of anguish in many homes. To go elsewhere is financially a difficult call at present for many students and their families. The news that Edinburgh University may charge £9,000 per annum to students from the UK gives one indication of the scale of the problem. The added irony is that Scots students and successful applicants from the European Union (but not the other UK countries) will not have to pay on such a scale.
In terms of the National Health Service, A & E is surely a basic provision. A & E at the Lagan Valley Hospital in Lisburn is already closed overnight. And today decisions are going to be made about the date of the projected closure of the A & E department at Belfast City Hospital. This has already been deferred once, it is said, due to the consultants at the Ulster Hospital at Dundonald, expressing their concern that their department would be over-faced as a consequence. The BBC reports this morning that the determination of this issue will be made today on the closure which will probably take place in November.
Today there is also a report published which indicates that child poverty in Northern Ireland is in fact increasing. The comments on this report by the spokespersons of the various charities involved with children must be seriously considered by any body or person concerned about the quality of life in this community.
Sadly, so far there does not appear to be any expression of public concern by the Church regarding any of these situations outlined above.
Add to this the consequence of UK defence cuts in Northern Ireland. An entire brigade is being disbanded and some of the regiments which form it will disappear from Northern Ireland in the next year, and indeed some from the Army permanently. This will have economic and educational consequences. There will be a loss to the local economy and e.g., in respect of one regiment in the Lisburn/Aldergrove area that will result in the loss of 90 pupils – in other words three classes of children with the attendant three teaching posts in a profession in which young, well-qualified, people have been finding it extremely difficult to obtain posts either temporary or permanent.
Again, sadly there is an ominous silence from the Church.
Despite the Church’s own financial problems, is the time not overdue for the five/six northern dioceses to form a small, well-qualified group to respond to such major societal issues on behalf of all church members and the good of the entire community?
And I apologise to any reader from the Republic concerning the unavoidable insular nature of this posting. However, I rather fear there may be similarities regarding the Church’s lack of an effective engagement with the debates and decision-making on the very real issues which shape the lives of people and society.
I look back with some envy to the days when an effective Role of the Church Committee monitored and commented upon such developments and furthermore did so on an All-Ireland basis and during times when it was difficult to communicate on community issues north-south. Ichabod.
Houston McKelvey