budget cuts

The secret of surviving the cuts is easy – just don’t be poor…

Brian O'Neill on September 27, 2017, 12:02 pm61 Comments | Readers 1845

It is fair to say that things are going to get worse. A friend in the civil service says they have been told to implement 4% cuts this year, 8% next year and 4% the year after. Education has a 105 million black hole. Health is getting 70 million chopped off its budget. And all this is before Brexit even happens which depending on your view shall either be calamitous or the making of us. My background is working class but …

The £105m education shortfall – behind the headlines…

Brian O'Neill on September 26, 2017, 5:08 pm41 Comments | Readers 1318

The head honcho of the Department of Education says there is a rather big hole in the education budget, from the BBC: Derek Baker, the department’s permanent secretary and the man in charge of the department in the absence of a minister. Mr Baker said that the department had £24m less in cash than last year, but rising costs meant pressures of £105m. He said the funding pressure was mainly due to rising pay, special educational needs and maintenance costs. Mr …

“Now it seems that Sinn Fein is realising how badly exposed its negotiators left it to accusations of a sell-out.”

Pete Baker on March 10, 2015, 2:55 pm79 Comments | Readers 3953

In today’s Irish News John Manley does everyone a favour by identifying Sinn Fein’s problem with the agreement they signed up to in December. The nub of the problem appears to lie in the figures contained in the Stormont Castle Agreement, an agreement within an agreement negotiated between the five parties days before the final accord was signed off on December 23. In annex A of this sub-agreement, the figures for the planned welfare safety net are outlined. It earmarks …

“If you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls*!t.”

Mick Fealty on October 8, 2014, 3:55 pm18 Comments | Readers 1955

So if you think these recent backroom changes in Sinn Fein have no visible effects, you might be right. Dropping Leo Green and then losing Vincent Parker (both of whom were highly rated by those outwith the party), may have not changed what happened to poor Phil Flanagan yesterday when he showed up on Nolan with a bat already thoroughly smashed to bits by his own team captain: listen to ‘Last month, the DUP got the Nolan Show montage treatment. …

Ad hoc group to seek way forward

Pete Baker on July 6, 2010, 6:47 pm9 Comments | Readers 1

The Northern Ireland Executive’s “away day” at Greenmount Agricultural College has come to an end. And they’ve reportedly agreed to set up a cross-party review group “in a bid to find a way out of the economic crisis facing the Executive.” According to the BBC report It is understood ministers were given the full economic and fiscal context of what is happening. Official sources told the BBC the problems facing the Executive are enormous and on a scale people in …