"Begging Bowl Mentality" delivering nothing but instability - Parsley

12.47.53pm BST (GMT +0100) Tue 28th Mar 2006

Young Alliance Chairman, Cllr Ian James Parsley, has said that the "begging bowl mentality" of Northern Ireland politicians must end if political stability and economic prosperity are to become reality.

The North Down Councillor stated: "Yet again today we hear of another demand for billions of pounds of funding from the Government. Where, precisely, is this money supposed to come from? The simple fact is that throwing money at a problem achieves nothing unless politicians are willing to accept responsibility for real decisions.

"The UK Government has upped public spending 60% since 1998. Have public services improved? Have hospital waiting lists disappeared? Have houses become more affordable? Do schools have access to all the resources they need? Have we resolved the pension crisis? No. Despite over £10 bn of extra public money being thrown at Northern Ireland - a figure which

dwarfs anything the Republic received in 'European money' - we still endure the longest waiting lists in Europe, the least affordable housing, crippled education budgets, and strikes due to pensions cutbacks.

"Have our politicians nothing better to do than shamefully head to London and Dublin with yet another begging bowl saying 'Please Sir, can I have some more?'. After eight years, it is about time Oliver grew up!

"If we do not move beyond the culture of creating dependency towards a culture of creating wealth for ourselves, instability and stagnation will continue to reign - as will collapsing public services, the ongoing 'brain drain' and declining living standards.

"If the politicians within the loony left sectarian political consensus are unable to come up with anything more creative that 'We want more money' and 'We want more resources' - as if money and resources come from thin air rather than from the impoverished rate payer - then the people should not be slow to get rid of them and try the politics of progress and prosperity instead.

"Of the Assembly parties, only Alliance is serious about putting the begging bowl away and coming up with real ideas to deliver concrete outcomes for all our people."

ENDS