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Public sector protest in opposition to `Fresh Start'

Nipsa protest yesterday outside Belfast City Hall over cuts to the public sector. Picture by Hugh Russell.
Nipsa protest yesterday outside Belfast City Hall over cuts to the public sector. Picture by Hugh Russell. Nipsa protest yesterday outside Belfast City Hall over cuts to the public sector. Picture by Hugh Russell.

PUBLIC sector workers took to to the streets of Belfast and Derry yesterday in opposition to the series of political deals that ended the power-sharing stalemate.

NIPSA, the north's largest public sector trade union, has rejected the Fresh Start, The Stormont Agreement and Implementation Plan, saying it "does nothing for members, nothing for citizens and nothing for public services".

It says the Fresh Start agreement "commits to 20,000 public sector job losses, savage cuts to those in receipt of social security benefits, including low paid in-work families" and warns the introduction of a 12.5 per cent of corporation tax rate will further reduce the Northern Ireland block grant by £200 million per year and "only reward big businesses".

The protests were aimed at galvanising other trade unions, community organisations and `civic society' to Nipsa's opposition movement.

`Fresh Start' was agreed by the Executive and the British and Irish governments after ten weeks of intensive cross-party negotiations after a security assessment that the IRA remained active led the UUP to withdraw from government and the DUP to disrupt the ministries with a series of resignations and re-appointments.

It provided around £500m to be allocated from Westminster to assist with tackling "issues unique to Northern Ireland".