Debate contribution: Failure to Agree a Budget

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 5 October 2026.

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 5774667

Text

Early in the process, the Executive took the decision to retain the ring-fencing in the Department of Health's budget to tackle health waiting lists. That funding is in place. The Health Minister has an opportunity to spend that funding. There have been significant improvements in our health waiting lists over the past period of time as a direct result of the Executive working together and a focus being placed on those waiting lists. I will not stand at the Dispatch Box and suggest that the absence of a Budget is a good thing or that it helps us to improve our services, because it does not. We need a fair and sustainable Budget, and that is what we are working towards.
The Secretary of State has a style of engagement, on a range of issues, that is unique to him. That does not always bed well in this place. Perhaps, once he has been here longer, he will understand us as a people. Further engagement between the Executive and the British Government is required.
Each Department has been planning on the basis of receiving a 95% budget since August. The permanent secretary of the Department of Finance has been advising Departments of their financial position. Each Department will have to make its own decisions on how it plans against that 95% budget and then work its way through things strategically. I cannot speak on behalf of each Department and how it is managing its budget at this stage, but each Department is aware of the parameters within which it is working.
No. That is an important engagement and settlement that has to take place. As I said earlier, short-termism has not worked for the Executive. It has not worked for our public services or for the public who rely on them. There needs to be a proper recognition from the British Government and the Treasury that they have been underfunding this place for many, many years, and that, in order to correct that, the funding that comes, and the final figure, when it is agreed, will have to be baselined, meaning that this Executive and future Executives will have the basis on which to transform our public services and build our economy.
I wrote to the Secretary of State last week, asking him to extend his deadline. He responded to me within 24 hours, setting out his position. I shared that with my Executive colleagues. On Friday, I asked them to hold an urgent Executive meeting so that we could establish a position with which to go back to the British Government. Obviously, the Secretary of State is also involved in engagements to do with the ongoing situation on the Garvaghy Road, but there has been a focus on the Budget, and there is a continued focus on it. When the Executive meet tomorrow, I will be better placed to go back to the Secretary of State to set out our position.
I have set out my position very clearly. We require a Budget. There was a duty on me to publish a Budget in advance of the start of the financial year, and I did that. No alternative Budgets were provided by anyone, including the Member's party. If the SDLP is advising me as Finance Minister, and other Ministers, that we should go ahead and settle negotiations now with the British Government, provide me with an alternative Budget to look at. At least have the good manners and decency to say to the public, "Here is what we would do". If the Member were standing where I am now, what would he do with the money that is currently on the table? How would he divide it up? If he is serious in what he is saying, and if he is serious about defending public services, he should produce a document and say, "If I were in John O'Dowd's position as Finance Minister, I would publish this as the Budget", and we would then be able to have a proper conversation about it.
The Speaker's Office may want to examine Mr Gaston's comments towards me. Once a response to that is back, I may consider answering his question.
Gerry is aware that the current difficulties that we face come directly from budgeting decisions of the British Government. I made it clear in the draft Budget that was published that any pay increase for workers and those on the ground should be considered against those going to the highest paid officials and staff in health trusts or anywhere else. There is a quare difference in cash terms between a 3% or 4% pay rise for somebody on the minimum wage and a 4% increase for somebody on a high wage. I stated in my draft Budget and have said to officials that that should be taken into consideration before pay rises are made.
That is not a finance question, but I will answer it in this way: I call on those who have influence in the unionist/loyalist/Orange community to lift the pressure that is on the Garvaghy Road community and to return home from the church along the route by which they went to the church. You and I know that there is an alternative route. You and I know that the community of the Garvaghy Road already hosts an Orange parade out to the church. You and I know that that is the unwritten, unspoken compromise, and your colleague, Carla Lockhart, and Jamie Bryson have, for whatever reason, decided to reopen that old wound. I appeal to you to use your influence to bring that to an end.
It is not. It does not cover baselining, and nor does it respond to borrowing powers for the Housing Executive, which would allow us to build more social housing. There are two issues that it does not deal with. Nor does it deal with the quantum of money required to stabilise public services, which has come about as a direct result of years and years of underfunding.

1,006 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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