SDLP Foyle MLA Mark H Durkan
In response, the SDLP Opposition has published a five-point fiscal plan to fix a ‘damaging’ Budget that fails to match ambition with action.
The MLA for Foyle said: “Last February, the restored Executive promised a new era, but so far it has delivered only the same old dysfunction.
“The Programme for Government was late and vague, and the Budget that followed fails to direct even 2% of funding to its stated priorities.
“This is a masterclass in managed decline, papering over the cracks left by decades of dysfunction and disinvestment. Meanwhile, people still can’t access a GP or dentist.
“Their daily commute is a pothole assault course. Childcare costs are crippling working families. And the dream of a secure home is fading fast.
“The gap between press statements in the Great Hall and people’s lived reality grows wider by the day. The public is right to ask, ‘if this is leadership, why aren’t our lives getting better?’
“Let’s start where the damage is most visible; our roads. In Foyle, the Strand Road alone has seen 400 pothole repairs on a single kilometre.
“The £143m annual spend needed to keep roads in good condition hasn’t been met in a decade. Instead of long-term investment, we get patchwork repairs and £25 million in compensation claims. This isn’t belt-tightening, it’s dereliction.
“Once again, the Budget fails to confront the crisis in water and wastewater infrastructure with no clear way forward in terms of a review into NI Water funding mechanisms.
“We have hundreds of acres of vacant public land laying unused, costing taxpayers £5.6m in three years, which should be repurposed to provide social and affordable homes. Emergency accommodation costs have exploded from £700k to £7.6m.
“The health service is collapsing in real time. Staff are no longer leaving for paid opportunities in London but Letterkenny.
“People are taking loans from credit unions to access private care. In the North West, the Trust continues to be punished by capitation formulas.
“We have the fewest mental health social workers, the fewest OTs, and some of the longest waits. That’s despite having amongst the highest demand for services.
“The mental health crisis is deepening, but the Budget offers nothing. Vital services like Northlands are being withdrawn by stealth, shifting the burden onto emergency services, housing and the justice system.
“Community policing is in crisis. Response times are up, confidence is down and that’s no longer based on just ideology, but on experience, because no one answers when they call.
“And finally, we must call out the glaring hypocrisy of our leadership party who call for emergency investment in water, housing and planning reform in the Dáil but take the opposite stance at Stormont where they hold power. That’s not unity, that’s partitionist policymaking.
“People aren’t demanding perfection. They’re demanding a plan and honesty from those in power, sadly the recent budget doesn’t deliver on promises of change made by this Executive.”
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