In a piece of news that will surely come as no surprise to those of us resident in Northern Ireland, the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee in Westminster has concluded that our public services are in such a state of crisis that they are negatively impacting our quality of life.
As ‘The Guardian’ puts it in its article on the subject
“Northern Ireland’s public services, including hospitals, schools and police, are being “crippled” by lack of funding, impinging on the quality of life for many people, a report by a government committee has concluded.
The Northern Ireland select committee found patients waiting more than 12 hours to be seen in accident and emergency departments and mental health needs 40% greater than anywhere else in the UK. Hospital waiting lists are among the worst in the country.
Its investigation was also told that Northern Ireland “recently held the world record for prescribing the most anti-depressants per head of population”. It also found that children with special needs were waiting more than a year for support.
One witness, the Law Society of Northern Ireland, said public services were “at risk of collapse”.”
The Irish News, in its own report on the Committee’s conclusions, quoted Labour MP Toria Antoniazzi as saying
“The crisis afflicting public services in Northern Ireland has gone on for far too long with the crippling effects of underfunding impinging on the day to day lives of people across communities. The current hand to mouth approach when it comes to funding has often been too little, too late, particularly when it comes to what one witness to our inquiry called the three hungry children of the health service, schools and the police. The aim must be that public services in Northern Ireland are fully funded according to need, through stable, sustainable and predictable allocations, and our recommendations for the short, medium and long term set out the path to get there.”
Solutions proposed by the committee according to the Irish News include “water charges and a review of the rates system, with one witness stating that the latter could raise an additional £615 million.” The committee notes that water charges (and by implication other revenue raising measures) would be “politically contentious” but also believes that discussions on them should no longer be avoided.
It is fair to point out that most members of the committee, including previously quoted MP Toria Antoniazzi, were not elected by anyone in Northern Ireland and represent constituencies in Great Britain (only three members of the thirteen-member committee are Northern Irish MPs). The majority of the members are therefore not exposed to the political consequences of the introduction of water charges, the suggestion of which has proven highly controversial with the Northern Irish public in the past.
How the conundrum of a need for increased revenue to improve public services in the face of trenchant public opposition to those revenue raising measures is to be solved is an outstanding question.
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