Debate contribution: Executive Budget
Debate contribution by Ms Diane Forsythe on .
- MLA
- Ms Diane Forsythe
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 22 June 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Opposition Business
- Heading
- Executive Budget
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5637908
Read the official Assembly record
Text
As we speak about the Budget once again, I make the point that everyone here accepts that there is not enough money. Northern Ireland is being asked to deliver first-class public services with second-class funding. The gap between what our hospitals, our schools and our front-line services need and what the Treasury provides has been growing year after year. That is no longer sustainable, and it is impossible to make the books balance without additional funding. Westminster cannot keep expecting Northern Ireland to do more with less. However, today's Opposition motion and its framing in the media is gaslighting the public. I am glad that the leader of the Opposition heard some of my comments on that this morning. The SDLP has been on the airwaves portraying itself as having discovered some great unknown: that we may be facing £1 billion of cuts.
The Opposition say that that will happen only if the Executive fail to set a Budget by 1 August, but the truth is that, if the Executive were to set a Budget now with the funds that are currently available to them, the £1 billion pressure would be signed up to and we would have to make £1 billion of cuts or raise £1 billion of revenue in this financial year. That is completely unrealistic and would decimate our public services.
Are the Opposition really saying to the Executive, "Agree a Budget now, rather than wait until the looming date of 1 August"? Are they saying that the SDLP supports £1 billion of cuts to Northern Ireland public services in 2026-27 that would see outworkings such as the loss of 6,000 teachers? The SDLP has not given many answers on where the money would come from. There is no constructive opposition here. Once again, the Opposition stand on the sidelines and criticise the Executive without bringing an alternative to the table. Where is the SDLP's draft alternative Budget for now with the funding that is currently available? What cuts does it suggest? Some specifics would be great. Would it make cuts to teachers, healthcare staff or the PSNI? The SDLP is on the airwaves slamming the fact that those things might be cut if we cannot agree a Budget by 1 August. Realistically, however, those are the things that Ministers would be signing up to if we were to agree a Budget today. The Opposition should be honest with people. They need to move away from sound-bite politics and get serious. What are they actually doing? The SDLP has mentioned the current chaos in Westminster, yet, in the 2024 general election campaign, it boasted of the great influence that it would have in Westminster through its relationship with the SDLP's sister party, Labour, with which it sits on the same Benches. What has it used that influence for? There have been no constructive outcomes for Northern Ireland's finances and no constructive opposition. There is a pattern there. We want to see a multi-year Budget in place to support our public services on a long-term, sustainable basis, but we need the right funding model in place to do that. We will continue to make the case for that and will strive for efficiencies and the transformation of the current delivery of our public services. We regularly meet the Government. Gordon Lyons recently met the Chancellor to seek a better deal for Northern Ireland, particularly in borrowing powers to build houses. The current drama in the Labour Party does not help us, but it will not deter us. When John O'Dowd laid the multi-year Budget earlier in the year, I was one of the first to criticise it. The Education Minister set out exactly what it would mean for education if those cuts were to be put in place. Ministers have fed back that the Executive have sat around the table and agreed that that Budget cannot be brought forward. It is not a Budget that prioritises things such as social housing, as there is insufficient capital allocation to enable the Communities Minister to meet the housing targets set out in the Programme for Government. The Budget is wholly inadequate to deliver the SEN agenda. As I said, Minister Givan has outlined the potential for mass compulsory teacher redundancies numbering 6,700. By the end of the multi-year period, the shortfall in Justice would equate to the combined annual budgets of the Prison Service, the Probation Board, the Youth Justice Agency (YJA) and Forensic Science Northern Ireland. We believe in constructive solutions. The DUP will continue to work at all levels, including alongside Executive colleagues. Our MP team will continue to work alongside the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee to secure, as soon as possible, a long-term funding package that is meaningful to Northern Ireland, enables a multi-year Budget to be delivered and is sustainable to enable us to deliver high-quality public services for the people in Northern Ireland. We believe that the amendment improves the motion and will support it.
830 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.06 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.89).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.04 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.03 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.02 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.13 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.04 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.89 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.06 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 0.90 |
| Constitutional question, Brexit, the Windsor Framework and sovereignty | 0.05 |
| Another identity-related subject | 0.03 |
| Sectarianism, hate crime and community relations | 0.01 |
| Disability (including neurodivergence and mental health), disabled people and disability or sickness benefits | 0.01 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 16:06 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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