Civil servants protest at cuts

NIPSA, Northern Ireland’s leading public service union, organised the event outside Richmond Chambers last week, while other protests were held at a number of offices and facilities, including Altnagelvin Hospital.

NIPSA General Secretary, Brian Campfield, stated: “We want to highlight to the public the disastrous consequences for the local economy, for employment and for local communities resulting from the loss of tens of thousands of public sector jobs.

“We agree with the statement by David Blanchflower, Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire, USA that: ‘these dangerous and unnecessary austerity measures must be reversed’.

“We also want to highlight that there is an alternative to these cutbacks. The Government can reduce the deficit by making the wealthy in our society pay a greater share of taxation.

“In addition the Government should start chasing the 123bn lost to the public purse every year as a result of tax avoidance, illegal tax evasion and uncollected taxes.

“The public need to know that the Government propaganda that the only way to cut the deficit is to cut public spending is a lie.”