Debate contribution: Budget Discussions
Debate contribution by Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly on .
- MLA
- Mrs Emma Little-Pengelly
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 8 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Budget Discussions
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5600490
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you. Again, it is an exceptionally difficult issue. I do not think that anyone around the Executive table does not want to have an agreed Budget. However, we have to weigh up the implications of agreeing a Budget that would be woefully inadequate to support front-line services. The moment such a Budget was agreed, accounting officers in Health, Education, Justice — every Department — would be telling Ministers that they could not spend what is required on vital public services. The impact of that on ordinary working families would be catastrophic, and it is not something that I am prepared to stand over. Of course, the current system is also inadequate. I do not want to be in a situation where we can spend only 45%, for example, of the allocation until July, but every Member needs to be aware of what would happen if a Budget were set with £1 billion-plus missing from what is required and assessed to be required to run our public services.
168 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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