Public sector workers need budget says Workers Party

Pat McGreevy, the Workers Party representative for South Down, has called on the Executive to prioritise setting a budget so public sector workers can receive their pay increases. He said working class people are bearing the consequences of the failure of the Assembly to function in the best interests of all citizens. The comments were made on Wednesday 14 October 2026.

Mr McGreevy described the situation as a game of pass the parcel between the Executive and the Westminster Government, with working class people left to suffer the effects and much needed services affected.

The Workers Party said it reflects badly on the political leadership that the budget has still not been set, and that the blame game has gone on for months. It described it as disgraceful that public sector workers are now being forced to ballot on industrial action to secure the pay increases that are due. In the case of health service workers, those increases are long overdue.

Mr McGreevy added that the fact MLAs are in line for another substantial pay increase will make matters worse for working class people who are struggling to make ends meet and who are having to use food banks on a regular basis.

He finished by saying it is time political leaders stopped concentrating on their own narrow sectional interests and made the rights of workers and their families the priority. He said the interests of all citizens should be placed at the centre of all public policy, and urged them to stop fiddling while Rome is burning.