Harry Cullen, of the Northern Ireland Conservatives, has accused the DUP of “performing a remarkable and shameless about-turn”, since Edwin Poots became health minister.
“It’s actually incredible to witness”, Harry commented. “When the DUP wasn’t in charge, we heard repeatedly that the health budget was more than sufficient. They claimed that the department simply had to be run more efficiently to deliver savings and protect front-line jobs and services”.
“While the previous minister tried to duck difficult issues, according to the DUP, there were very few tough decisions to make. Now that Edwin Poots is in the post, though, the party’s story has changed dramatically. It has decided that revenue raising measures are necessary, for instance re-introducing charges for prescriptions or bumping up the cost of car-parking, and Poots has admitted that front-line staff may be laid off and services affected”.
“In the current climate we certainly need to make savings and the NHS cannot be an exception, but it is the DUP’s blatant hypocrisy which is most startling. Nothing has happened in a matter of months to explain this complete about-turn on health policy by the party. We can only assume that its previous stance was purely fuelled by selfish political gain”.