People need not accept collapsing public services

5.00.31pm GMT Fri 24th Feb 2006

Young Alliance Chair Cllr Ian James Parsley has said that people in Northern Ireland need not accept hospital closures and a decline in public services, and called on them instead to abandon segregation.

Responding to a report illustrating increasing mental health problems among young people, Cllr Parsley stated: "People in Northern Ireland must not accept declining public services. We are being lectured that the money is drying up. But the simple fact is that if we spent the money we have more wisely, public services would improve, not decline.

"Hospital closures or declining services, such as in Omagh, Magherafelt and Whiteabbey, must not be tolerated. The failure to invest in tacking depression and preventing suicide must not be tolerated. The failure to provide us with proper water deliver structures must not be tolerated. People should not just throw the heads up and meekly accept this 'new

reality'.

"The truth is we can afford rural health services, we can afford to tackle mental health issues, and we can afford proper water delivery without extra charges. What we cannot afford is segregated health facilities, leisure centres and school buildings.

"Money is being taken out of the Northern Ireland budget, with good reason - we have been drip-fed via billions of pounds subvention for decades. However, this money should be taken out of the 'segregation budget', not out of health, leisure and education. And we should stop this nonsense about there being a maximum amount of money in the pot - it is up to us to

create the wealth and make the pot larger.

"A low quality of life is not something people should just surrender to. People deserve world-class hospitals, world-class sports facilities, and world-class schools. To pay for them, we need to create more wealth and stop the segregation of public services."

ENDS