Welfare reform
Welfare Reform will not go away and all the parties in the
Northern Ireland Executive need to face up to that challenge. Burying heads in the sand and hoping it will
go away will not solve the problem. We
need a welfare system that is fair and sustainable and which provides support
to the most vulnerable in our society.
Indeed we are part of the United Kingdom welfare system and we receive
from the Treasury in London, every year, about £5.5 billion into Northern
Ireland in welfare payments whilst only paying £2.5 billion into central
treasury funds.
The welfare reforms that were agreed by the UK parliament at
Westminster had some good elements but as we all know contained many
flaws. These flaws would have had a
detrimental impact on Northern Ireland and indeed it is hard to imagine the
government sustaining some of their changes in the medium term, for example
around the ‘Bedroom Tax’. That is why I
negotiated with London a package of unique to Northern Ireland flexibilities
that address some of the flaws in welfare reform to which I referred.
Those changes were negotiated by a DUP minister after lengthy
engagement with UK ministers. No other
political party negotiated them and no other political party could negotiate
them. We did that because we are a
compassionate party. We have a concern
for the most vulnerable and that is why so much time and energy and effort were
devoted to this issue.
I also engaged with the First and deputy First Ministers and
the then Finance Minister to agree a further package of measures which will go
even further. The full package is there
and ready to go to the Executive. I am
therefore frustrated at the procrastination of Sinn Fein and their refusal so
far to face up to the issue.
Nevertheless we have played our part and I am sure, when the full
package of flexibilities is announced that most people will be pleased by what
we have achieved.
You will appreciate that change is a constant in most areas
of government and none more so than the Department for Social Development. There will also be change in relation to the
provision of social housing. I
have already listed our achievements but we need to do more and that requires a
reform of social housing. The Northern
Ireland Housing Executive has remained unchanged for 40 years but the time for
change has come. We are all aware of the
problems there have been in the organisation for a number of years in relation
to the way that the Housing Executive managed and monitored its response maintenance
contracts and its planned maintenance contracts and that mismanagement has cost
us millions of pounds. Under the watch
of the DUP those issues have now been identified and I am determined that they
will be dealt with.
However these issues reveal a deeper malaise that existed in
the organisation, especially at the top of the organisation. I am pleased that slowly but surely change is
happening, new appointments have been made to the Board and at the senior level
within the organisation and I am very encouraged by the changes to date.
Moreover, looking to the future, I am also determined that we
will develop a new model for delivering social housing and one that will be
affordable, sustainable and able to build more social homes. That work is already underway.
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