Minister speaks to the sector on spending pressures

Confirming Neighbourhood Renewal (NR) as DSD’s ‘flagship’ programme for disadvantaged communities the Minister pledged to fight to protect the NR budget. However he had a stern warning for any other departments that are trying to ‘usurp’ Neighbourhood Renewal and said he would not remain quiet if that was to happen.

Reflecting on the current budget negotiations the Minister said he believed there was no definite plan to complete the process before the May 2011 elections.  He went on to list three values which govern the budgetary process.

First was his belief that frontline services are not only in health and education. Actions to address disadvantage and poverty should also be considered as frontline and be afforded protection. Secondly he called for a critical assessment of economic interventions across government to determine which are the most effective and efficient.  Using Invest Northern Ireland as an example the Minister pointed out that the Executive needed to be sure that money spent by Invest NI to create employment was as effective as money spent by his department to create jobs and support growth through programmes such as Neighbourhood Renewal.  The Minister's third point was that government needed to rethink the way in which it procures services to ensure that small and medium local business and organisations are treated fairly and procurement delivers maximum social and environmental as well as economic benefits.

Minister Attwood finished with a number of challenges to the voluntary and community sector. He challenged the sector to think about how it can do things differently and explore areas of greater collaboration.  The Minister called for a frank conversation about what is and isn’t working in the sector and added that in some cases the salary levels in organisations were higher than those of high level civil servants and needed to be reviewed.  The Minister added that time for talking about the current financial situation was short and it was now time for action.

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To see reports of the previous briefing meetings held with departments, see Meet the Government Departments ...