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Civil service job cuts scheme to go ahead

THE secretary of state has said funding will be available to lay off hundreds of the north's public sector workers.

The scheme formed part of the Stormont House Agreement and involved the executive borrowing hundreds of millions of pounds to fund the job cuts.

However, Sinn Féin and the SDLP's refusal to sign up to welfare reform has placed all aspects of the pre-Christmas deal in jeopardy. The largest assembly parties are scheduled to return to Stormont tomorrow as the British and Irish governments broker efforts to secure a fresh deal.

But speaking at the weekend British-Irish Association conference in Cambridge, Mrs Villiers said funding would be provided to allow the civil service voluntary exit scheme to go ahead.

The £700m scheme aims to cut Stormont's budget by shedding the equivalent of 2,400 full-time civil service posts.

The first 864 civil servants are due to leave on September 30.

Ms Villiers made the announcement at the British Irish conference in Cambridge on Saturday.

"We recognise the pressing need for public sector reform in Northern Ireland," she said.

"We therefore believe that the voluntary exit scheme for public sector workers contained in the agreement must go ahead."

It is claimed the redundancies could cut the civil service wage bill by £90m a year.

More than 7,000 civil servants expressed interest in the scheme and 1,200 offers were made, but only 864 staff took them up.