![]() Since the wait to receive a first payment is around 5 weeks, many who claimed in that period have relied on food banks and community aid to survive.Īlthough eager to ask Westminster for further fiscal control to give tax breaks to the wealthy, Northern Ireland’s ruling elite have, unsurprisingly, made no such effort to ask for similar devolved powers to make capital pay its way during the COVID-19 crisis. The previous Stormont Executive consented to the introduction of Universal Credit, along with other punishing Welfare Reforms, back in 2015 in a deal which would allow them to lower corporation tax.Īs of April 26, the number of people claiming Universal Credit had risen to 126,000, compared to 70,000 claimants registered on March 1. Many of the newly unemployed were instead forced to apply for measly payments under the Universal Credit system – ironically hand crafted by the Tories to force people back to work. Refusing to both wind down economic activity and introduce the necessary financial support to protect working class people, Stormont dithering almost immediately saw around 1,000 workers lose their jobs in the early days of the crisis, without support. In a further emergency meeting held just three days later, Sinn Féin brought forward a proposal to do exactly that. During an emergency meeting held the same day, they refused to support a People Before Profit call to close the city’s leisure centres in the interest of public safety. While the DUP are at least consistent in their disastrous outlook, the Deputy First Minister’s erratic handling of the situation was emulated by her party colleagues in Belfast City Council. However, it took less than 24 hours for Ms O’Neill to appear before the cameras in the Parliament Buildings foyer where, spurred by public pressure, she insisted it was “time to take action”. The DUP and Sinn Féin were undoubtedly keen to present a united front, with the cracks in their newly formed government already beginning to show. Stormont ObedienceĪs the Tories pursued their reckless ‘herd immunity’ policy, ignoring World Health Organisation (WHO) advice to initiate a lockdown, their lackeys on the Hill were right in tow.īy mid-March, after a fraught few months in office, First Minister Arlene Foster and Deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill addressed the press to defend an Executive decision not to close schools, parroting Westminster’s insistence on adherence to “scientific evidence”. Nor does it undo the reality that Stormont slavishly followed Boris Johnson’s approach from the beginning of the crisis. It does appear that the Stormont Executive, in presenting this document as a clear divergence in strategy from Boris Johnson – while continuing to allow bosses to force workers in non-essential Bombardier and Caterpillar factories, and simultaneously refusing to mass test in essential workplaces where COVID-19 has spiked – are hoping to come out of this with a brighter shine than Westminster. Nor is there reference to meat production plants like Moy Park, where a worker tragically lost her life to COVID-19 this week, or Omagh Meats where unconfirmed reports suggest that up to 30 workers are infected. But there were few concrete aspirations in terms of testing or contact tracing, or how expansive testing will be in care homes where more residents have died than in hospitals. It does detail the economic pressures of lockdown, though, a nod to the driving factor behind easing lockdown restrictions at all. Scratch just below the surface though, and the document presents a series of vague commitments. Stormont’s new ‘roadmap to recovery’ released today seems to follow this new tack. The announcement appeared to mark a divergence from the decisions taken by their counterparts in London and Dublin, who have already drawn criticism for the steps they’ve laid to ease the restrictions. Interested observers of the Stormont Executive’s approach to the COVID-19 pandemic might have been somewhat surprised by last Thursday’s decision to extend the lockdown in Northern Ireland by three weeks. As Stormont releases its ‘roadmap to recovery’ Rebel details the road already taken by the Executive during the COVID-19 crisis – filled with confused intentions and potentially deadly missteps.
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