Tough choices are faced on cuts

Compared to most other parts of the UK and, of course, the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland has escaped the worst impacts of austerity. It is not that Stormont didn't need to make cuts, it just didn't wield the knife. In the words of one Treasury source, the Executive has been kicking the can down the road for years. Now it has run out of road.

The head of the Civil Service has told the Treasury that the Executive is on track to go broke by the end of the financial year.

This is not just due to the swingeing penalties imposed because of the failure of politicians here to introduce welfare reform – although that is desperately-needed money being wilfully wasted. Other graduated cuts in spending were needed but left until now, when the bill appears enormous.

Our politicians now need to make hard choices. Quite simply, there is not enough money in the coffers to keep spending at the same rate.

While there will be the usual demands on departments to trim their budgets, some more radical, outside-the-box thinking is also required. The PSNI, for example, faced with a £51m cut to its budget by the end of this calendar year, is actively exploring the possibility of making some people pay for officers' services. That would include the organisers of contentious marches or demonstrations where hundreds of thousands of pounds are spent keeping rival factions apart.

How does it make sense to spend £40,000 every night policing the Twaddell Orange camp in north Belfast or £330,000 to police a dissident republican march through the city centre when health and education services are crying out for money? Or when funding is being stripped from the arts and culture sectors, which contribute something positive to society here?

Maybe if those who sully the name of Northern Ireland had to pay for their policing cover they would be less inclined to take to the streets. It is obvious that Stormont must question every spending decision as austerity looms. It must cut out waste within the processes of government, but it must also prioritise where funding goes.

Belfast Telegraph