Debate contribution: Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Ms Diane Forsythe on 15 June 2026.

MLA

Ms Diane Forsythe

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

15 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5614384

Read the official Assembly record

Text

At this Final Stage, we welcome the Bill, which, as other Members have said, covers a wide range of powers over many critical areas. There are 20 substantive clauses on the operations of seven Departments. It has been 12 years since the Executive have brought forward a Bill of this kind. A lot of work has gone into it, and it is good to be here today. We welcome the reduction of items managed through the black box as a result of the legislation and the significant improvements that it means for financial governance in Northern Ireland. The DUP's concerns have been outlined by me at every stage of the Bill. I will not recount them all again, but I wish to highlight two issues. The first is our ongoing concern about the high level of public expenditure on asylum and immigration integration support services. No new powers are being brought forward; it is more of a reorganisation of the administration of spending, which is not devolved. Immigration policy remains a Westminster responsibility. It has been good to clarify through our scrutiny that the Bill would not address wider issues such as accommodation providers, as those are operational matters rather than legislative ones. I note that the safeguards on spending are needed. We should not allow ourselves to be found in a situation where the Executive, through TEO, are offsetting the Home Office's failure to address the impacts of immigration on our communities financially and practically. The other point that I want to raise, which I have raised at every stage of the Bill, is the DUP's concerns about the attempt by the Department for Infrastructure to introduce a clause to bring in charging for travel passes by negative resolution. Travel passes for over-60s in Northern Ireland are important and valued by many who have worked hard and paid their taxes all their life; in fact, they are seen by many as the only thing that they receive from the Government. Potentially changing that was not well received, and I welcome the amendment that requires any such attempt to come to the Assembly Floor for a vote rather than slip through. I welcome the engagement with the Department for Infrastructure, the Infrastructure Committee, through our Finance Committee and the Finance Minister to bring that forward. The current context must be included in the conversation. We have recently seen the Infrastructure Minister put a freeze on Translink fares again, horrifying the trade unions, which have said that that will have an impact on jobs, as it did in the past. The Minister then went on to say that she will reconsider removing concessions in place of that to make up for the millions of pounds of shortfall from not applying inflationary increases to fares. Concessions were put in place for certain groups of people for a reason, and the more vulnerable in society will be hit. While the Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill has been moving alongside that and does not directly cover those concessions, I welcome the fact that the Bill includes that one small protection for the over-60s from the Department for Infrastructure — the clause on travel passes — and I urge the Infrastructure Minister to proceed with caution on decisions in that area. Overall, the legislation is widespread and does multiple different things. The scrutiny of it has been complicated and interesting. I thank the Minister, all his officials, the Finance Committee and its staff and all other Committees and their staff. I also thank the drafters in the Bill Office. As was mentioned, there were a number of amendments and a number of conversations going on, and the Bill Office did a lot of work on that. I thank everyone, and I am pleased to see the legislation reach this stage today.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 01:21 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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