Debate contribution: Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 15 June 2026.

MLA

Mr John O'Dowd

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

15 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5614367

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

The Final Stage debate will conclude this part of the legislative process for the Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill, which I introduced to the Assembly on 23 June 2025. Since then, the Bill has been subject to detailed scrutiny and debate, which has been thorough and constructive. I express my sincere thanks to the Chairperson and members of the Committee for Finance for their careful consideration of the Bill. I also extend my thanks to the other Committees that contributed to the scrutiny process and to the officials from various Departments who provided evidence and support to the Finance Committee. The Bill is important and necessary. As Members are aware, my principal purpose in introducing it was to tidy up a range of routine administrative and financial matters that, taken individually, would not justify stand-alone primary legislation but that, collectively, are necessary to ensure that public finances and administration continue to operate effectively and appropriately. In response to requests from Ministers and to issues raised during scrutiny, I tabled a number of amendments to the Bill, which I am pleased were agreed at Consideration Stage. As I have said previously, many of the measures in the Bill are long overdue. Indeed, a number of activities that the Bill addresses have been relying on the sole authority of the Budget Act, and this legislation will place those matters on the appropriate statutory footing. I therefore very much welcome the fact that the Bill has reached its Final Stage — a position that I know Members will also welcome. I do not intend to set out the provisions of the Bill in any great detail, as Members will be familiar with them from earlier stages. I will, however, briefly recap its main elements. The Bill strengthens marine licensing by providing additional fee-charging powers to the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs; supports the Department for Communities in tackling tenancy fraud by providing further powers to investigate fraud in the social housing sector; and centralises responsibility for setting the basic allowance payable to councillors. The Bill also delivers a number of measures for the Department for the Economy, including updated powers to provide financial assistance where it is in the interests of the economy to do so, to support higher education through loan funding, and up-to-date Tourism NI fee charging and grading functions. The Bill enables the Department of Education to provide financial support for teacher training and further professional development postgraduate study in educational psychology. For my Department, the Bill provides the statutory power to make loans for the purposes of an investment fund, thereby allowing the responsibility for issuing loans to the investment fund to transfer from the Executive Office. The Bill also increases the limit on advances from the Consolidated Fund. The Department for Infrastructure is provided with a regulation-making power to charge a fee for the issue of travel concession passes. Finally, the Bill provides the Executive Office with the powers to use funding received from Whitehall Departments to support the integration of refugees and those seeking international protection, as well as a new power to provide services to support victims and survivors of abuse. The Bill also allows TEO to fund development opportunities in respect of public arrangements and to deliver on the strategic framework on ending violence against women and girls, and there is a technical amendment relating to the appointment term of the Commissioner for Survivors of Institutional Childhood Abuse. I do not intend to rehearse the matters further, as they have been fully debated during earlier stages. The Bill has benefited from detailed scrutiny and constructive engagement by Members, and I believe that it is stronger as a result. I ask Members to support the passage of the Bill.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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