Debate contribution: Northern Ireland Fiscal Council Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on 15 June 2026.

MLA

Miss Deirdre Hargey

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

15 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Northern Ireland Fiscal Council Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5613496

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Like everybody else, I welcome the Final Stage of the Fiscal Council Bill. It is good that we have got to this point. There has been some constructive discussion through the Committee and at each stage in the Chamber. As others have highlighted, this is putting the council on a firm statutory footing from where it was when it was established back in 2021. One important point that has been raised today in relation to some of the amendments is that, from the outset, it was always important that the Fiscal Council operate independently from the Executive, Departments, Ministers and, indeed, even the Opposition. That point is important: it is for the Fiscal Council to determine the work that it carries out. The council is about increasing transparency and adding to the public debate around our finances. We should not shy away from that, and it is welcomed by Sinn Féin. As Steve Aiken mentioned, it is key to the discourse on where we are with the Budget. It is important that the general public know that we are not financed on the basis of need when compared with Wales and Scotland. The Fiscal Council’s work has shown that the Budget that comes from Westminster treats us as second-class citizens when compared with the funding for the other jurisdictions, and that is not acceptable. If we were funded to the level of need, we would have an additional sum of between £1 billion and £3 billion, which would go a huge way to alleviating some of the pressures that our public finances face at the moment. I welcome greater scrutiny from organisations such as the Fiscal Council, and it is important that they look at the broader issues going forward. As was touched on earlier, there have been some attempts to misconstrue the role of the council or to say that it is about trying to stop us from looking at the cost of division. I have spoken about those issues; I do not shy away from them. They are important. I have highlighted the fact that the cost of poverty is almost double the cost of division, but both are important areas for us to look at. There is nothing in the Bill to stop the Fiscal Council from looking at any of those issues going forward, which makes it all the more important that we have an independent council. The Fiscal Council’s two statutory duties are to bring forward a Budget assessment report and a fiscal sustainability report. The rest of the operational decisions are down to the council, and that is the right course of action. The legislation before us today strikes the right balance. If the council wants to look at other wide-ranging societal issues, it has the independence to do so, and that ensures confidence in the body among the wider public. I thank the Minister for introducing the Bill, and I should highlight the fact that it was Conor Murphy, a Sinn Féin Minister, who established the Fiscal Council in 2021. We will continue to engage proactively with the council and others as we discuss our public finances.

524 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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