Thank you Mr Chairman for your kind welcome, and let me welcome you one and all to Kells on behalf of our North Antrim branches, you are now in the heartland of traditional unionism in Northern Ireland.
My name is Timothy Gaston, this time last year I stood in front of you all as a councillor on Ballymena Council, a year later I stand in front of you as the Deputy Presiding Officer of Mid and East Antrim Council after topping the poll in Bannside in the Super Council elections in May. Not only did TUV top the poll, but we secured the next highest polling unionist in Bannside – some might say that is not a bad day’s work as Bannside is supposedly the DUP’s back yard.
That shows the resonance that TUV is having with the community where we are given the chance to work hard – thanks in no small part to Cllr Roy Gillespie who has given his life to the people of Bannside since he was first elected in 1973.
I would ask everyone to join me in thanking Roy for showing us young ones how to conduct ourselves in public office.
Roy has set the standard for all TUV councillors.
I am here today to talk about the economy.
It really shouldn’t need pointed out that Northern Ireland needs to balance its budget each fiscal year. We teach our children to save money, only to spend on essential items and that you have to have money before you can spend it. Minister Hamilton described this as an imaginative budget so here’s an idea – maybe we could send the children from our local primary schools to teach the Executive about fiscal responsibility as it seems the current executive parties are unclear about this fundamental.
The DUP / Sinn Fein deal has been cobbled together at the very last minute so they can cling to power. Instead of Health Trusts being given the time to plan ahead for drastic cuts they and, indeed other, essential services have seen their budgets slashed at the 11th hour.
Mr Chairman, let me ask you this: what single item has led to the current impasse – Welfare Reform. Conference – has welfare reform been resolved?
No.
Has it been addressed in the so called deal?
No.
Mr Chairman, the budget is but a sticking plaster trying to hold the cracks together until the next obstacle. It is a delaying budget to give the Stormont regime more time to kiss and make up.
It seems that almost on a daily basis the Minister for photo opportunities Arlene Foster is bringing us good news on the jobs front. However, the cold, hard economic facts tell a different story.
Across Northern Ireland the number of people claiming jobseeker’s allowance has risen since 2008. Just this week our party leader Jim Allister received a written answer revealing that in Ballymena council area, for example, there were 630 claimants in May 2007. Exactly seven years later under DUP/SF misrule that figure has climbed to 1340. It has risen from 1.7% of the working age population to 3.5% in those seven years.
Here in North Antrim we have Gallahers / JTI is on the brink. I attended a meeting yesterday with the unions as they seek to save jobs – I fully support them and so does this party – but the reality is manufactures have been leaving North Antrim – and very little has been replacing it.
Is this merely the result of the economic downturn which has hit the whole of the UK? Data produced by the House of Commons suggests not.
Northern Ireland is lagging well behind other regions of the UK.
Why? Because we have an executive which claims credit for every job which is created but isn’t so quick to swing into action when jobs are lost.
We have a system of government which shackles us to the bankrupt Republic by way of multiple North-South bodies while we fail to exploit the advantages of being part of one of the world’s biggest economies as part of the United Kingdom.
Conference – do you think the waste on North-South bodies has been dealt with? No, no – Sinn Fein wouldn’t allow that to be touched.
Corporation Tax has been hailed as an economic saviour for Northern Ireland. It is talked about as if the corporation tax hen will start laying golden eggs. TUV wants to see a prosperous Northern Ireland, but let us be clear on Corporation Tax – this is a perilous issue.
Any cut to the level of Corporation Tax in Northern Ireland will see a corresponding cut in the block grant.
According to figures produced by the Treasury this would amount to a cut of £110 million in year 1, £235 million in year 2, £265 million 3rd year and year 4, and £270 million in year 5 years – based on a 1.5% reduction in the rate of corporation tax in Northern Ireland.
Stormont’s Department of Finance and Personnel has estimated that the direct cost to the block grant could be in excess of £400 million by year five.
A cut to corporation tax will therefore result in a drastic reduction to the money Northern Ireland receives from Westminster which in turn will have serious consequences for public services in our Province.
The Silk Commission considered this very move for Wales: “…recommended in 2012 that corporation tax should not be devolved to Cardiff “as the costs would outweigh the benefits”.
Mr Chairman – Let me repeat that: the costs would outweigh the benefits.
The Welsh government shared this analysis telling the Commission that while the “devolution of corporation tax could offer the Welsh Government a powerful tool to promote economic development, this is a volatile tax which is strongly linked to the economic cycle. There would therefore be significant budgetary risks to Wales”.
When it comes to Sinn Fein their desire to cut fiscal ties to London trumps any professed concern for public sector workers – who would be hit by cuts to the block grant.
The UK should retain its unified taxation system. That is the natural Unionist position and it also makes sound fiscal sense for Northern Ireland.
Talking about sound fiscal sense – what about the revelations made by Spotlight on Expenses in Stormont?
Sinn Fein have paid £700,000 of your money to Research Services Ireland for research that cannot be found. Disappeared you might say – if it ever existed in the first place. They have cultural societies set up as fronts to again swindle the taxpayer. They even went as low as registering as charities to be exempt from rates and tax.
We all know the calibre of Sinn Fein. While shocking, it is hardly surprising that when in government they want to bleed the British taxpayer dry.
When you put the people whose buddies stole £26 million from the Northern Bank in government don’t be surprised if the taxpayer gets a raw deal from them!
There used to be Unionists who said the IRA had to return their “ill-gotten gains” before they could enter government.
Of course that never happened and now that they are in Stormont they are using the expenses system to add to those ill-gotten gains.
Shame on the Stormont authorities for not seriously investigating this issue in 2009 and shame on the PSNI for not seriously investigating the issue.
And what of the outcry from Unionists following these revelations? It’s been surprisingly muted. Why? Could it be because of people like Mr McIlveen who needed three iPads? I think he misunderstood what an apple a day meant!
Then he had to get 19,500 stamps from a garage – to use in his paperless office.
Again in this constituency there is a DUP advice centre where the sole trustee states he knows ‘flip all’ about it and he is just a ‘sidekick’. While the local MP says the ultimate beneficiary of rent paid on the office from public funds is “the bank”. Many questions need answering. Not least the question of how common it is for people to pay rent to a bank.
The sad reality is this: this money should be available for frontline services.
TUV believe in protecting frontline services, our hospitals, doctors, nurses, our teachers and care givers. TUV will work to do this.