Minister of the Absurd in good sense shocker! Wilson gets it right, but Robbo's not listening..

It’s not often that I would profess to agree with Sammy Wilson, or to have sympathy with him.  However I think that he’s got it right on water charges.

Northern Ireland relies on a huge subvention from Westminster, we cannot be exempted from a UK wide public spending squeeze and it is no longer tenable to avoid charges for water which are applied across the rest of the country.

Wilson, in charge of the finance brief, has attempted to impress that fact upon his Executive colleagues, and, for his troubles, he has been slapped down by his party leader, Peter Robinson.  Clearly the course is already set for populism and irresponsibility.

We need to budget for water charges introduction and press ahead with them.  We should also look at the possible savings from reinstating prescription charges.

It is no good perpetually ducking the difficult decisions in the belief that our 'peace process' forms a sufficient reason to keep throwing money at us.  

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