Northern Ireland (Welfare Reform) Bill

Danny Kinahan Excerpts

Monday 23rd November 2015 Commons Chamber

[Danny Kinahan (South Antrim) (UUP)]

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak about this most extraordinary Bill. It is so sad that it has become necessary, not because of what it does—we welcome much of what is in it and the fact that it can now happen, and it takes us out of the quagmire of inactivity that I spoke about in the Chamber a few weeks ago—but because our legislators in Northern Ireland are unable to do it themselves and are happy to pass the buck to Westminster. It is also a worse deal than that offered in the original Stormont House discussions, and it shows that the Government are happy to listen to only the two main parties in Northern Ireland, rather than the five that are in the coalition or the opposition coalition.

[Mrs Villiers]

I want to reassure the hon. Gentleman that the Ulster Unionist party was one of a number of parties that I listened to. It repeatedly said that the Executive had to have a sustainable budget, and that was undeliverable without welfare reform, so the agreement reflects input from the UUP.

[Danny Kinahan]

I take that on board, but only to a certain point. We were not listened to as much as we wanted, and we were certainly ignored quite a bit at the end as the two main parties took control.

[Sammy Wilson]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Danny Kinahan]

Not at the moment.

Was it a case of, “Any deal will do,” perhaps to keep the Prime Minister happy or, more importantly, to fit in with the First Minister’s resignation and glorification at his party conference last weekend? That is deeply worrying.

Some five weeks ago I spoke about the Stormont crisis in an effort to show this House that the present Stormont devolved system does not work. The current Government do not work and I intend to show why that is the case. During that debate we highlighted the fact that, out of the £80 million in the social investment fund, only £1 million had been spent. I also showed that shared education, the racial equality strategy, same-sex marriage and many more things were all stalled by the Executive. I also raised the fact that welfare reform could not be agreed, because Sinn Féin had pulled out of the Stormont House discussions after initially agreeing with them. The consequence is that all our Departments are grinding to a halt; no budget was agreed as a result of welfare not being agreed. So, here we are, passing it over to Westminster to do it for us.

I remember it being made very clear in the Stormont Chamber that, in effect, all the Finance Minister had to do was allocate the Barnett formula funds to the various Departments and that she was no more than a glorified accountant. It seems that we cannot even do that. We have had to hand over the responsibility to Westminster so that it can do the allocation for us.

Stormont is a legislative Assembly—its job is to legislate. May I make it absolutely clear that my party—the Ulster Unionist party—has all along been against handing power back to Westminster? Yet here we are, handing back to Westminster the power to legislate. It is very sad that Stormont cannot even do what it was set up to do.

[David Simpson (Upper Bann) (DUP)]

Could the hon. Gentleman brief the House on exactly what suggestions his party made in the negotiations?

[Danny Kinahan]

I would also like the hon. Gentleman’s party to say what it agreed with Sinn Féin along the way. [Interruption.] I was not involved at that point.

In this fresh start—or should we call it a false start?—Stormont cannot sort out paramilitaries, so it sets up a panel to advise us on how to deal with them, and it cannot decide who the vulnerable are, so it sets up a panel to advise us, and so it goes on. Stormont can legislate, so it legislates to give that very power away. In my time at Stormont, I saw nothing but strategies, reviews, reports and, in so many cases, parked initiatives, which are now all sitting on shelves and gathering dust. That shows Stormont unable, as ever, to take action; unable to act; unable to do what it is there for; and unable to make things happen.

If we read through the overlong false start document, we can see many examples of exactly that. It is all buried in the language of stall and inaction, and all stuck in the quagmire of indecision. The agreement has wording such as that it

“has the potential to nudge history forward”.

I do not want the word “potential”; I want a document to say that it “will” nudge history forward. The document sets up a strategic taskforce body to report and bring forward recommendations for a strategy. We need not strategies, but actions. It sets up a trilateral ministerial meeting that will set out goals. That is an improvement of the wording, but we need more on how we can achieve goals and how we can get actions.

On community engagement and prevention, the document talks of three programmes on vulnerable people, participation and influence, and women and reducing offending. Those programmes are yet to be produced; again, we need actions. I hope those programmes proceed with actions, not strategies. Furthermore, to deal with paramilitaries, we are setting up a panel to produce a strategy. That is another strategy, but at least this one has a written promise to put into action the panel’s recommendations. There is much more. Today’s action is an abdication of responsibility. Indeed, one of the Sinn Féin Members of the Legislative Assembly has said that the

“suggestion that responsibility for administering the benefit system should be returned to Westminster would be a betrayal of the most vulnerable in society.”

This deal is a worse deal than the one supposedly agreed in the Stormont House agreement—or Stormont Castle deals—of 11 months ago. Sinn Féin Members, who reneged on that deal, must feel pretty silly: they held up the whole agreement and the budgets of every single Department, to the point where nearly every person in Northern Ireland felt the pain—all, we believe, so they can be seen to oppose austerity in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.

We now have this Bill handing power over to Westminster so that parties can blame the Brits, blame the English for the cuts and blame all of you in Westminster for good housekeeping. That is the same good housekeeping that the Stormont Finance Minister argued for and accepted only three years ago. That seems to be in the past: DUP Members are now happy to hand the power over so they too can blame Westminster. I wonder why —there must be an election coming. They are as bad as Sinn Féin at times, ducking their responsibilities and playing politics with our fantastic little country.

This deal is worse. DUP Members are happy to accept £345 million in full mitigation, minus the tax credits, rather than the £564 million in the original Stormont House discussions. They are happy to accept £500 million for shared education, but it is now aimed not just at shared education, but at shared housing. They are happy to tie themselves to the unknown welfare cuts through Westminster that may arise this Wednesday or in next year’s Budget. It seems that no one thought of that. They are happy to lose the return of welfare fines that we have already paid owing to their inaction: some £100 million in 2013 to 2015, and I believe a further £29 million of wasted welfare fines from this year—money we could have better spent in so many other areas.

[Sammy Wilson]

Does the hon. Gentleman accept that one reason why we paid money back was that his party, when it was having its Jeremy Corbyn moment, was prepared to oppose the welfare changes and was therefore responsible for some of those payments? He cannot run away from that and blame it on somebody else; his own party took that stance.

[Danny Kinahan]

We had very good reasons for taking that stance at the time. We can certainly complain because we are where we are today.

We really need help on welfare in Northern Ireland. It pains me to say so, because I do not want to be part of a begging bowl Government. I want to see Northern Ireland thrive. We have the high-tech skills, the best schools and the entrepreneurs, but we also have the unemployed, the disadvantaged and mental health problems that the years of troubles have left us with. As other hon. Members have said, we do not have the jobs and skills base for those at whom the welfare reforms are aimed. We need reskilling and the right manual jobs for this new welfare system to work.

The roll-out of universal credit in Northern Ireland has experienced major delays and other problems while dealing only with the easy cases. On the disability living allowance and personal independence payment, Northern Ireland has a higher proportion of DLA claims for poor mental health than in Great Britain: in 2010, mental health issues were the disabling condition for 23% of all DLA claims in Northern Ireland, whereas the equivalent figure was 12% in Great Britain. When it comes to tax credits, the changes will hurt far too many, and even with the Chancellor’s minimum wage plans, the childcare help and housing plans, 121,000 people will still be left short by just under £1,000 a year, which will affect our economy, our health service and, of course, our mental health numbers. We need to mitigate the tax credit cuts. With Westminster as yet not changing its plans, Stormont will have to pick up the effects of these cuts. That is one reason why this deal is not as good as it could be. As I have said, it is worse than the original Stormont House agreement.

The Bill really shocks me in that it is only agreed by the two main parties. It is almost as though the Government wanted a deal at any cost, but many have felt that we needed a whole new deal—not a Stormont House agreement, but a complete reworking of all post-Belfast agreement deals. We could have done not with a fresh or even a false start, but with a new start to tie up all the loose ends, such as the legacy issues; better government with a proper opposition; proper action not just on speaking rights and finance, but on a change in the committee structure; and a reworking of the petition of concern, but not into the damp squib of what looks like an effectual code.

So much more could have been included in the deal. I wish we had seen it as a way of drawing a line in the sand. I believe today is a sad day for Northern Ireland. We have shown how big a failure our Stormont is in its present hands and how it cannot agree on anything. I want to see Northern Ireland really thrive. It has the skills, and if we could have more action and more decisions, it can get there. I am grateful for what we have got today, but it could have been so much better.