Alliance brings proposals for annual savings of £1 bn straight to the

4.57.14pm GMT Mon 7th Nov 2005

Alliance MLAs, Councillors and Officers took their campaign to save £1 bn annually - the equivalent of the entire education budget - straight to the public today. Enterprise Spokesperson Séan Neeson, Chief Whip Kieran McCarthy and last year's Belfast Lord Mayor Tom Ekin took to the streets of Belfast City Centre to promote the campaign.

Mr Neeson stated: "The recent Government Budget for Northern Ireland asks the public to pay more for water and rates, while ignoring the money wasted on duplicated and segregated services.

"We waste £1 billion every year on the likes of having three leisure centres where there should be one, of having nine health centres where there should be two, of spending money on school buildings instead of school children.

"The Secretary of State and other local parties want you to pay higher rates to keep this wasteful system of sectarianism, separation and segregation. He won't listen to us, the parties in the NI Executive didn't listen to us, but we suspect the public will!

"We in Alliance have a unique vision of a future where people live and learn, work and play together. This will save each and every family in Northern Ireland thousands of pounds, year after year, and let us build better services for everyone - without extra water charges, rates hikes or tuition fees.

"We are asking people to get behind this unique, sensible and responsible vision."

ENDS