On January the 16th Sinn Fein collapsed the Stormont Executive, stating ‘We can’t go on like this’

Earlier that day, the Sinn Fein Health Minister Michelle O Neill declared, ‘Sinn Fein had striven to make the institutions work’ but guarded that her party could only return to government in the face of ‘real and meaningful change’ such change she further claimed had been thwarted by the fact, ‘The DUP have treated the institutions and sections of our community with contempt and total arrogance.’

This isn’t the first time that Sinn Fein has accused its power sharing ‘equal’ of ‘bad faith’ and claimed that, such acts of bad faith could put a halt to the power sharing executive.

During the all party talks on ‘Welfare Reform’ (March 2015) Sinn Fein withdrew its support for the so called ‘reforms’ claiming, the DUP had reneged on commitments, and in doing so, they had failed in their obligation to protect the most vulnerable people in our society.

The response to the claims that, Sinn Fein had stood against Tory austerity and for social justice during the initiation of the ‘Fresh Start’ were rejected outright by both Peter Robinson and Alasdair McDonnell, while the former claimed that the Deputy First Minister was, ‘actively lying to electorate about what his party had already signed up for’ the latter stated, ‘I’m glad today Sinn Fein have woken up to the reality of the situation and joined the SDLP in our principled opposition to these attacks on the vulnerable.’

The idea that Sinn Fein had joined the SDLP in principled opposition to the Tory austerity cuts was to be very short lived, because despite the Ard Fheis claim by the chief negotiator that, ‘Sinn Fein doesn’t do austerity-We do equality,’ they voted with the DUP and Alliance to wash their hands of the vicious cuts by handing them over to the Tory government to implement them.

The implementation process was a resounding defeat for Sinn Fein as well as those staring the impoverished cuts in the face.

After months of posturing and threats to collapse the power sharing executive, Sinn Fein and the DUP had consented to remove the ‘Welfare Reform Bill’ from Stormont and abide by the austerity cuts via Westminster legislation.

The Fresh Start Agreement was quickly being sold as an Agreement to consolidate the peace, secure stability, enable progress and offer hope.

While unquestionably real term reductions to our Block grants have created enormous difficulties for our society, given our unique challenges as a community emerging from a long and bitter conflict, we have made enormous progress towards a durable peace over recent times…………..

This document signals our resolve to engender the sea change so longed for by our community-a new beginning, an opportunity to move forward with a real sense of hope and purpose………….

Our pledge is that together we will use the Office of the First Minister and deputy First Minister to lead by example, and through co-operation and common purpose, ensure that the spirit, vision and promise of the document is fulfilled.

The truth behind the rhetoric is there was never going to be any fresh start, and the likelihood of one emerging now rings as hollow as Sinn Fein’s appeal to the British, not to introduce the bedroom tax during this recent crisis.

Their remarks came after a Stormont department confirmed that locally-devised payments to around 34,000 will be rolled out without the endorsement of the crisis-hit executive.

Fears of a backdoor bedroom tax due to the latest crisis cannot be totally staved off by the claim that Stormont has plans to mitigate this Tory cut until 2020.

The bedroom tax has already been rolled out across England, Wales and Scotland (before being effectively ended by the SNP) however, due to the fact Sinn Fein and the DUP handed the cuts chalice to the British to render on their behalf there has been no political agreement on its introduction to the North.

The bedroom tax was brought into law in ‘Northern Ireland’, by Westminster, via two sets of Regulations which would have brought the bedroom tax into effect from January this year.

The Fresh Start Agreement agreed that-until at least 2020-the bedroom tax would not apply.

In the present climate however, and inspite of the calls that the mitigation mechanism can be triggered to prevent this throughout this period of power sharing crisis, it could still prove problematic.

Unlike the mitigation arrangements for some other welfare changes such as the benefit cap, no regulations to mitigate the impact of the bedroom tax have been brought forward.

This morning thousands of letters were received all over the North alerting families to the proposed changes to housing benefit from the 20th of February 2017.

While the footnote on the letter does tell the claimant if their benefit is reduced, the ‘Northern Ireland’ Executive has decided you should receive a welfare supplementary payment until March 2020.

However, when these measures run out in four years-rather than the six originally agreed at Stormont house-absolutely nothing is guaranteed and the full devastation of what is unfolding will be felt.

A recent report in Britain into the impact of austerity measures relating to the work capability assessments in just one year found, 590 extra suicides, almost 280,000 extra cases of mental health and an unbelievable rise in the demand for anti depressant drugs.

After the ‘Fresh Start Agreement’ Martin Mc Guinness in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph claimed, ‘We agreed that the Welfare legislation go through Westminster, but this was simply a technical matter, which saved the Executive £40million. That £40 million will be invested into our public services and, with a sunset clause built into the legislation, welfare powers will return to Stormont.’

Unfortunately there was no ‘sunset clause’ available for Mc Guinness to save face, because what the Deputy First Minister failed to tell the reader and the electorate was, of the £585 million fund 41% was already set aside for the impact of the cuts to people on tax credit. The remaining 59% was the money to be used to mitigate against the introduction of the 2012 Welfare ‘Reform’ Act over the next four years.

The fact that the posturing and U turns would eventually cost the taxpayer £200million never got a mention neither did the fact that, the British brought more to the table during the Stormont House than the eventual Fresh Start Agreement.

Now that the Fresh Start, once the only show in town (allegedly) has brought Sinn Fein to the point that they claim has no return, people should take note of these disgraceful stunts and recognise while there is serious cause for people to get angry there is more to be gained by getting real.

Fionnula Perry is a former Republican POW and current Vice Chairperson of Saoradh.