Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The RHI scandal and the subsequent crisis sum up everything that is wrong with politics at Stormont: corruption, cronyism and sectarian sabre rattling. It is summed up by the two coinciding facts that in Belfast the Charles Hurst Ferrari showroom will be heated using public money for the next 20 years while at the same time 42% of people live in fuel poverty.

In Arlene Foster's own rural constituency, 75% of GP surgeries face closure and school children will be hit by plans to end free school buses. Yet, as Deputy Boyd Barrett mentioned, Viscount Brookeborough, the so-called Lord Lieutenant of Fermanagh, will receive £1.6 million to heat his 1,000 acre estate from this botched scheme. Those are just two examples of those who will gain from the scheme at a cost of almost £500 million which will see wealthy recipients mostly get £1.60 back for every £1 spent.

The whistleblower who made this scandal public had approached Arlene Foster in 2013 but was ignored. Mrs. Foster's ministerial successor, Jonathan Bell, alleged that when he moved to close applications to the scheme, he was blocked from doing so by Mrs. Foster and other senior figures in the party. He has since claimed that the reason the scheme was not closed was that DUP advisers or their families would gain as they had interests in the poultry business. The scheme was backed by all the main parties and the scale of the financial black hole in the scheme was known at Stormont from early last year but was not brought to the public by any of them.

It is no wonder that people in the North are angry with politicians getting away with wasting millions on a botched scheme yet when it comes to children's education or a bed in hospital they are told there is no money. This is what teachers, who tomorrow will take further strike action, were told. They were offered a 0% pay increase even though since 2010-11, teachers' salaries have decreased in real terms by 15% as a result of austerity implemented by successive Sinn Féin and DUP education Ministers and yet they were told there was no money.

This cash for ash scandal is not a once off. It is part of a long list of scandals which expose the DUP's cosy relationships with bosses and property developers. Those scandals are a symptom of a wider political culture in Stormont which is about giving handouts to the wealthy while imposing more and more austerity on working class people.

All the main parties, be it Sinn Féin and the DUP in government or the UUP and SDLP in the misnamed official opposition, support a drastic cut to corporation tax which will be the equivalent of an RHI scandal every year, transferring hundreds of millions from public services, which are being cut, to companies' profit.

A number of weeks ago, the DUP and Sinn Féin were supposedly bosom buddies, happily working together to implement cuts. In fact, political commentators argued after the last assembly election which was only eight months ago that we were in a new stage of the peace process where politics in Northern Ireland would be normalised.

Last week we had Martin McGuinness's resignation, where he claimed that he was calling a halt to the DUP's arrogance. In truth, Sinn Féin was slow to take such a stand. In December, it abstained on a motion in the assembly calling for Mrs. Foster's resignation and has been nervous about calling for an independent, public inquiry. It was only pressure from the public and its base which has pushed Sinn Féin to take a harder position.

Politicians from the orange and green parties are now engaged in a sectarian pantomime, cynically banging the drum on the divisive issues in order to secure their vote. Since Mr. McGuinness's resignation, Mrs. Foster has claimed to have done nothing wrong and that this is really about attacking the leader of so-called strong Unionism who will not roll over to Sinn Féin.

We have had the disgraceful decision by Paul Givan to cut the Líofa bursary scheme for young people to attend the Gaeltacht in summer by £50,000. He has been forced subsequently to do a U-turn. There is no doubt that decision was a sectarian decision by the DUP. However, Sinn Féin has also been cynical in using this issue when their own Ministers have overseen cuts to Irish language funding in the past.

Meanwhile, the Minister, Máirtín Ó Muilleoir, has suddenly decided to remove the Union flag from his Department's buildings, an emotive issue and a move clearly aimed at whipping up sectarianism.

Some politicians have claimed that there will be no return to the status quobut that is precisely what any agreement between the right wing parties of sectarian division will mean, whatever superficial changes are made. Neither will direct rule by the Tories or the proposal of a joint authority between right wing governments result in any solution.

Even before the cash for ash scandal, people in the North had a cynical attitude to the Stormont institutions. They saw them as ineffective and the politicians within them as aloof and self-interested. A recent poll conducted before the scandal broke showed that only 28% trusted Stormont politicians. In particular, young people are turned off by the sectarian and backward politics which dominate Northern Ireland. Marriage equality and a woman's right to choose have been denied, despite the wishes of the majority in society. The right to choose and marriage equality have been denied by the DUP which is itself a backward, sexist party. On the issue of abortion, however, the DUP is not alone. Sinn Féin has tried to present itself as a party that stands up for equality, respect and integrity but, like the DUP, it does not offer equality, respect or integrity to those women who wish to have an abortion. All of the main political parties in the North oppose a woman's right to choose, despite this being the 50th anniversary of the passing of the Abortion Act 1967 in Britain which gave access to abortion. They all offer a return to the status quoof backward politics. The status quomeans the politics of sectarian divisions.

Historically, it is the labour and trade union movement which has been the key force in bringing together ordinary working people in Northern Ireland to fight for their common interests and challenge sectarianism. Only that movement recognises that ordinary people, Catholic or Protestant, have more in common and more that unites than divides them; they face the common misery of unemployment, low pay and attacks on public services and they need a common struggle together to improve their lot. The Socialist Party stands for the rebuilding of that tradition. The only lasting solution to the problems facing people in the North can come from such a movement of working people. Socialist Party members will be standing as part of Labour Alternative and the latter will be putting forward candidates right across the community. We also want to work with others who are serious about building a cross-community labour movement to mount the most credible challenge possible.

See this speech in context