Speaking to DUP members and supporters in Londonderry Gavin Robinson said,
“The Treasury contribution to fund public services in Northern Ireland is going down rather than rising. As an example, in England up to 2025, spending will increase by 6% but only 3.6% in Northern Ireland. It is time the Treasury and the Northern Ireland Office recognised this.
Northern Ireland doesn’t benefit from economies of scale like Great Britain. To provide vital services, we need a disproportionately larger public sector, and for as long as we receive 3% of what England needs under the Barnett Formula, we won’t and don’t get enough.
Unless there is a total recalibration of how Northern Ireland is funded, the situation will only get worse. With or without an Executive, and with or without the Protocol, Barnett will only lead to our budgetary pressures getting worse. Indeed, public services in Northern Ireland will stall and get to an irretrievable point.
Whether here in the North-west or elsewhere across Northern Ireland, for decades Northern Ireland’s infrastructure was in stagnation and as a result it needs mammoth investment which we cannot afford. The current projection will mean our infrastructure will stand still rather than modernise. But ultimately this will mean fewer houses, factories, opportunities, and public services.”
