DUP peers urge Chancellor to release money for public sector workers in NI

Chancellor Jeremy Hunt has been urged to “do the right thing” and release funds for public sector workers in Northern Ireland ahead of major industrial action on Thursday.

DUP peers have written to Mr Hunt and Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris stating it is wrong that the Government is withholding the money until the unionist party returns to the Stormont powersharing institutions.

Last year, Mr Heaton-Harris offered Northern Ireland parties a £3.3 billion deal to stabilise finances in the region, including £600 million to settle outstanding public sector pay claims.

However, the offer is conditional on Stormont returning and the DUP is maintaining its refusal to participate in devolved government until its concerns over post-Brexit trading arrangements are tackled by the UK Government.

The letter, signed by six DUP peers including Lord Dodds said: “It would be wrong to withhold money that is owed public sector workers in Northern Ireland, who are shamefully underpaid when compared with the rest of the United Kingdom, when you have acknowledged that the money is available.

“It would be even worse to withhold the money in those circumstances while promising to release it if the DUP agrees to accept the border in the Irish Sea and the partial disenfranchisement of the people of Northern Ireland, losing the right to make the laws to which they are subject in some 300 different areas.”

The letter said Northern Ireland had been underfunded.

It added: “The decision not to release the monies to pay public sector wages, is not only wrong because the money is there but because the money has in any event already been wrongly withheld from Northern Ireland for approaching two years.

“Your decision not to release the monies unless and until the DUP submits to the Windsor border, and goes back to the Assembly, does not create a new funding injustice but compounds and prolongs an existing funding injustice to which the people of Northern Ireland have been uniquely subjected.

“Rather than prolonging this injustice, we would ask you to end it immediately by releasing the money.”

The Northern Ireland Office and the Treasury have been approached for comment.

Mr Heaton-Harris has said on a number of occasions that the setting of public sector pay rates in Northern Ireland is a devolved matter in which he does not have the power to intervene.

The Treasury and Northern Ireland Office (NIO) were approached for a response.

An NIO spokesperson said: “Public sector pay in Northern Ireland is a devolved matter and it is for the relevant NI departments to negotiate pay policies.

“The UK Government has no authority to negotiate pay in Northern Ireland.

“The Secretary of State has expressed his disappointment that a new executive was not up and running to take the offer on the table and deliver it for the people of Northern Ireland before Christmas.

“The fair and generous package offered by the UK Government is worth over £3bn, including money to address public sector pay, and more than £1bn to stabilise Northern Ireland’s public services.

“However, this package is on the table and will remain there, available on day one of an incoming Northern Ireland Executive to take up.

“It is now for the NI Parties to come together, restore the Executive and begin to address the challenges facing the people of Northern Ireland, including public sector pay.”