Debate contribution: Failure to Agree a Budget
Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on .
- MLA
- Mr John O'Dowd
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 5 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Questions for Urgent Oral Answer
- Heading
- Failure to Agree a Budget
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5774634
Read the official Assembly record
Text
My priority remains to secure a fair, sustainable multi-year Budget that gives Departments certainty and enables them to plan, invest in and transform public services. That requires sufficient, stable funding from the British Government. The Executive have engaged extensively with the Secretary of State, and I have met the Chief Secretary to the Treasury and the Chancellor to press for a fair, sustainable settlement. Given the scale of the challenge and the consequences for services, I wrote to the Secretary of State last week seeking more time for the Executive to respond to his latest offer. Departments face acute pressures. The British Government's offer falls well short of what is needed to deliver fair pay awards, protect front-line services and provide the stability that our public services, our economy and our communities urgently need. It also fails to address issues that have been repeatedly raised with the British Government, including borrowing powers, baselining, reprofiling and adequate funding for reform and transformation. It therefore provides neither fair funding nor long-term financial stability for our Departments. The pressures are not new; they reflect structural underfunding and over-reliance on one-off allocations that are neither sustainable nor equitable. The scale of the gap is clear. If we were funded above need in the same way as Wales — eight percentage points — we would have an additional circa £1 billion to spend per year of the spending review period. If we were funded above need like Scotland — 20 percentage points — that could be around an additional £3 billion each year. The Executive are playing their part — work on reform and transformation is under way — but the British Government must also now provide the fair, sustainable funding that is required. Agreeing a Budget and securing funding go hand in hand. We remain committed to engagement that is aimed at protecting services and achieving financial sustainability that delivers for workers, families and communities.
321 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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