Party President Michael Donnelly addressing the conference

The Workers Party’s Northern Ireland Conference has heard calls for a rejection of the Sinn Fein / DUP Coalition and its ‘home grown’ austerity measures.

Party members were joined by trade union speakers in an assessment of the nature and impact of the austerity measures already implemented and those proposed under the Stormont House Agreement.

Unite The Union’s Regional Co-ordinator Kevin McAdam told the conference that cuts to public services, job loses and redundancies were being paid for by the poorest and most vulnerable sections of society. There is no corresponding increase in tax on the wealthy to re-balance the economy. The rich are getting rich and the poor are getting poorer’, he said.

Speakers also highlighted the austerity measures contained in the Stormont House Agreement and the coalition which Sinn Fein and the DUP have formed to implement them.

Conference also discussed Integrated Education, Racism, Sectarianism and Homophobia, the Health Service, Marriage Equality and water Charges.

An emergency motion called on the Justice Minister to resign in the wake of the recent report of the state of Northern Ireland’s prisons .