Debate contribution: Northern Ireland Fiscal Council Bill: Final Stage
Debate contribution by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on .
- MLA
- Dr Steve Aiken OBE
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 15 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Northern Ireland Fiscal Council Bill: Final Stage
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5613491
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Ulster Unionist Party welcomes the Fiscal Council Bill. It is something that we set out many Stormont Houses ago. It is so far in the distant past that we have forgotten how long ago it was. It was always clear that we needed to see what our government was doing and to measure it effectively. Time and time again, we have not been able to properly scrutinise what has come through or to look at the various figures, the Estimates and the spending lines. That is why, when the leader of the Opposition brought forward his amendment, the Ulster Unionist Party supported it in the Chamber. A degree of economic analysis needs to be applied. The other key issue is that the Fiscal Council was designed to deal with a steady state, analyse budgets appropriately and follow the appropriate system, but, yet again, we are in a situation where there is no Budget. We know from various correspondence going back and forth from the Departments that there seems to be a definitive approach to ignoring the rules and regulations laid down in the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and going on and spending anyhow. In that case, bearing in mind that the vires of the Fiscal Council Bill is for the Fiscal Council to examine the funding as it goes forward within the framework of a Budget and a budgetary process, yet again, we are outside that scope. I hope that the Fiscal Council takes its interpretation and ability to look at the processes as widely as possible, because I believe that, in the discussions that we had with the Department of Finance over the various things, and from what has been mentioned in the explanatory and financial memorandum, there is a degree of flexibility in the Fiscal Council to be able to achieve that. The process will only work if there is openness and transparency and if the Fiscal Council can get hold of the appropriate data and report it back. The purpose of the Northern Ireland Assembly, and Committees in particular, is to scrutinise Departments, but it is quite clear that we do not have access to all the data. We do not have sufficient detail to scrutinise the arm's-length bodies, and sometimes the granularity — to use that horrible phrase — of the information available is not appropriate for the task ahead. I would like the Minister, in his closing remarks, to state what direction has been given to his Department and, more importantly, as his Department is the lead for finances across all the Northern Ireland Departments, that it will provide data and cooperate fully with the Fiscal Council so that we can get a degree of analysis and rectitude in looking at where we are and where we need to be. I will draw my remarks to a close, because everybody has clearly stated their views, but my final point is that we have fought hard to get the Fiscal Council on a statutory basis. We need to make sure that it is not squeezed out or pushed into a corner just because it does not support some political parties' narrow views around how they want to do financing. That is the message that should come from everybody in the Assembly. The Fiscal Council is there to support us, and, bearing in mind that it will probably be one of the few organisations that will be guarding the guardians, we should support it.
578 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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