John Lowry, General Secretary of the Workers’ Party, has lambasted the Northern Ireland Executive’s Programme for Government 2008 – 2011 for its failure to tackle the sectarian division in society.

 Launching the Workers’ Party response to “Building a Better Future: Draft Budget and Programme for Government 2008- 2011 and Draft Investment Strategy 2008-2018”,  John Lowry stated “The Executive have no vision of what a future Northern Ireland might look like, no ambition to bring about closer integration and the unity of our people. They are content to manage division, not overcome it. Not only have they failed to address the question of sectarianism in the Programme for Government but they have abandoned the ‘A Shared Future’ policy, demonstrating only too well that they have no commitment to overcoming division and eradicating sectarianism, preferring instead a managed tribalism”.

“We should be under no illusion as to the nature of the recent budget introduced in the Assembly because those who introduced it are quite unapologetic. Introducing the budget in the Assembly, Peter Robinson declared “the days of labour priorities are over” and writing in the Belfast Newsletter Iris Robinson lauded the budget as “a radical right wing agenda”. The Budget was designed to promote private profit and to hell with the public good”.