Debate contribution: Executive Budget: Public Services
Debate contribution by Ms Michelle O'Neill on .
- MLA
- Ms Michelle O'Neill
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 21 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Executive Budget: Public Services
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5742091
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Matthew, I can tell you that all four parties of the Executive are deploying every effort to get a Budget: that is our endeavour. Do you know why Scotland is not knocking on the door or why Wales has agreed a Budget? Because they have more money, because they got a fairer settlement. People here deserve exactly the same. If we had the same arrangement as Scotland, we would be having a conversation about an additional £3 billion for our public services. If we had the same arrangement as Wales, we would be divvying up an extra £1 billion for our public services. They do not need to be in the position that we are in, because they are being funded to a different capacity. Our job is to maximise what we can achieve from the British Government to invest in our public services. Why should people here get any less than people elsewhere? They pay their taxes; they are entitled to good public services. We are in the middle of a negotiation with the British Government. We have made some improvements and advances, but that is still not enough for the four parties of the Executive, so we will continue to work on that. I hope that we can quickly get to the point at which we have an adequate Budget that allows us to do all the things that we all speak about in the Chamber day after day: investing in our public services; bringing down our waiting lists; ensuring that we invest in special educational needs; doing more on childcare; doing all the things that we want to do. We will be able to do that only if we have sufficient funding. The fight that we are having right now is the right fight, and I am determined to take it to the end of the line.
310 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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