Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

18 January was a day to remember in Northern Ireland. That was the day of the general strike in Northern Ireland's public sector. Transport workers, health service workers and teachers were on strike. More than 170,000 workers overall were on strike in defence of pay, which had lagged way behind inflation, and in defence of the people's public services. It clearly showed the most powerful and dynamic force in Northern society. It is not nationalism or unionism, but the power of a united working class. Now that Stormont is back up and running, the question for the Executive is what it will deliver for the working class. Pay parity with workers in England must be restored. Pay increases which protect against inflation and guarantee living standards must be implemented. Social services, including health and education, must get the investment they have been starved of. There must be no more Tory cuts.

The £3.3 billion funding package that the Tories have pointed towards is conditional on the Executive raising £113 million in what are described as revenue-raising measures. The Stormont Executive parties have not ruled out attacking working class people in various ways in order to raise those funds. Household rate increases, hiking student fees and attacks on free transport passes have been mentioned.

I warn all of the Stormont parties against a tax of this kind. If the DUP was represented in this Chamber, I would make that point directly to it, but it is not. Given that Sinn Féin is the only Stormont Executive party in this Dáil, I will address my final comments to the Sinn Féin Deputies. Your party has ambitions to lead the next Government in this State. Working class people here will judge you on a number of levels, one of which is what you support and do not support now in Northern Ireland. Mary-Lou McDonald has correctly criticised what she correctly described as Tory austerity. Sinn Féin has the finance, economy and infrastructure ministries in the Stormont Executive and has the power to do something about this. Tory austerity must not be passed on to the people of Northern Ireland by the Stormont Executive. There must be no household rate increases, no increase in student fees and no attacks on free transport passes or any other anti-working class policies of that kind. The working class of Northern Ireland have suffered for long enough under this Tory Government. There must be no more suffering heaped on them from Stormont.

See this speech in context