SCHOOL EDITION 29 MAY 2024 - Flipbook - Page 20
20
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
Business INsight
WEDNESDAY JANUARY 22 2020
business@irishnews.com
www.irishnews.com
New executive won’t deliver
if left to be an ivory tower
ANALYSIS
Brendan
Mulgrew
L
AST Friday our firm, in partnership with the NI Chamber
of Commerce, organised an
event which looked at our
new executive and assembly and
examined how the business community can best engage with the new
political set up at Stormont.
By necessity the event, hosted in
the magnificent offices of Allstate,
was organised at short notice but
was nevertheless very well attended with more than 80 businesses
registering within just a few days.
The chatter among attendees over
tea and coffee was notable for a few
reasons.
Firstly, there is no doubt that the
rebooted Stormont Executive carries with it the goodwill of the people here. Okay, there was no dancing
in the street to celebrate D’Hont
being run and people are by now
wary of placing too much faith in a
political system which has to date
under-delivered. But the parties and
the ministers do have support. So
too does the secretary of state.
Among the business people I have
met since last weekend Julian Smyth
is admired, for being more active
than his two immediate predecessors (insert your own joke here…)
and for clearly being determined
to stick to his deadline of January
13. Without that I think we can all
accept that the talks would still be
rumbling along.
The executive is a mix of the experienced and the fresh faced. Arlene
Foster has always been a minister
under devolution, never a backbench MLA; Edwin Poots is now on
to his fourth portfolio; Peter Weir,
Conor Murphy, Michelle O’Neill
have all been ministers before. On
the other side of the scale Nichola
Mallon, Deirdre Hargey, Naomi Long
and Robin Swann are taking up ministerial office for the first time but all
have political experience from varying senior roles and none should be
overawed by office.
All of that experience will be necessary if the executive is to address
the very serious issues we face as
a society. The New Decade, New
Approach ‘deal’ is heavy on aspiration but light on the financial muscle
required to deliver the many crowd
pleasing pledges within. The financial package published by the NIO
last week was underwhelming and
in fact amounts to the first serious
obstacle to the executive.
Julian Smyth is also being very
clear that even the limited additional funds come with strings attached
and a new joint committee which he
will chair will review public spending going forward. That sounds like
a pre-baked answer to the criticism
which will inevitably be contained in
the report of the inquiry into the RHI
scandal.
MEETING OF MINDS; NI Chamber and MW Advocate held an event called ‘Your Assembly & You’ for businesses and third sector organisations on the new
executive and assembly, the challenges they face and how wider engagement is essential for politics to succeed. Pictured, from left, are former MLA John
McCallister, MW Advocate managing partner Brendan Mulgrew, NI Chamber president and Allstate NI managing director John Healy and NI Chamber chief
executive Ann McGregor
But the secretary of state is also
challenging our politicians to agree
their own priorities and to get serious about taking responsibility for
raising additional revenue from our
own means.
Isn’t it ironic that in 2007 former
secretary of state forced a devolution deal among parties in part by
threatening to impose water charges, now we have a deal with water
charges, or some variation, firmly on
the political agenda?
None of the options to raise new
monies available to the executive
are popular, but government cannot
be about being popular all the time.
Pay parity for public workers is
great, and our nurses and teachers
do deserve a rise, but its an illusion
that parity exists on the other side of
the accounting table. A government
which is forever low tax and high
spending is not sustainable and serious conversations are needed about
initiatives which will raise funds.
It remains a nonsense that we have
free prescriptions across the board,
“All that experience will be necessary if the
executive is to address the very serious
issues we face as a society. The New Decade,
New Approach ‘deal’ is heavy on aspiration
but light on the financial muscle required
to deliver the man crowd pleasing pledges
within”
that anyone including full-time workers and well-off retirees receive free
public transport, while we continue
to pay no water charges and lower
tuition fees than elsewhere in the UK,
while our political leaders demand
additional funds. Those demands,
legitimate and worth making, would
sound much more realistic if some
hard decisions were taken at home
too.
Within the first week of the new political dispensation the possibility of
water charges was raised by Edwin
Poots and quickly dismissed by his
own leader and by Sinn Féin. The issue of tuition fees was raised by Arlene Foster and rejected by Michelle
O’Neill. It all has the air of kite-flying
and solo runs when what we need
is a strategic and joined up conversation, firstly among the executive
parties and then with the public. All
of that may come in time, in fact it
needs to.
With all parties back in the executive and a public more tuned in
to the financial pressures faced by
government this could be the time
to have open discussions about the
hard choices. The executive is hampered by only having two years left
on the current mandate but even 24
months offers some time to begin to
move on a transformation agenda.
Back to last week’s event. Our underlying message was that the business community, just like civic society and the third sector, has a role to
play in ensuring we have a sustainable and effective government. We
all have a duty to engage our MLAs
and ministers; the executive and
assembly will not deliver if left to be
an ivory tower.
The assembly is back – and we’re
all in this together.
n Next week: Paul McErlean
Brendan Mulgrew (brendan.
mulgrew@mwadvocate.com) is
managing partner at MW Advocate
(www.mwadvocate.com). Follow
him on Twitter @brendanbelfast