Debate contribution: Budget Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr David Honeyford on 19 February 2024.

MLA

Mr David Honeyford

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

19 February 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4223636

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I congratulate the Finance Minister on her new role and wish her all the best. I support the Bill. It is unfortunate that we do not have time to scrutinise it thoroughly, but I acknowledge the need to move forward apace after the past two years of suspension. As has been said, the Budget that we are discussing is for the current year and there are only a couple of weeks left of that year. However, I must mention a couple of things that are important now and will be essential in future. I speak as the Alliance Party's economic spokesperson and a member of the Economy Committee. This morning, we heard the Economy Minister's statement, which contained some good news but also some really large economic challenges. I want to focus on our growth and opportunities, as well as those challenges. We should not lose sight of the fact that it is the business community that creates jobs. It increases the profits that are able to be reinvested in order to bring money into our economy, which creates prosperity. It is essential that we work together to create the conditions and give businesses the best platform — in sporting terms, the pitch for them to play on. We need to create the best platform that they can have to support the business community and allow all sectors to grow. Given the added challenge that most of our businesses are small businesses or microbusinesses, which are spread across the region, I welcome the Minister's comments earlier around the spread of economic investment and talent around Northern Ireland. Being in the unique position of having access to the GB markets and the EU markets is something that we know about all too well. It has been in every news bulletin over the past while and it has been debated thoroughly here, and people here know about it. However, it is one thing for us to understand this opportunity: it is completely something else for the rest of the world to know about it and for us to be able to exploit the opportunities that we have in the rest of the world. There is also a lot of work that needs to be done to support and encourage our local businesses to realise their potential to export and move outside the Northern Ireland markets and into the EU and the Irish markets. There will need to be significant investment in order to realise that growth. There is truth in the old saying, "Follow the money". It is easy to make statements and say words, but the real value and the heart of the priority will be where the money is spent. Where the Budget is allocated to is the heart of where we are going. There are significant challenges in our economy this year and into the next, and I want to highlight a few of those. There are issues around energy transition and the reform of Invest NI and the changes that we need to see being brought through there. We need adequate funding for higher education, skills and all-age apprenticeships. While I am really encouraged by the Economy Minister's statement earlier, in which there was focus on growth in our economy and on tackling productivity, it is really important that, moving forward, the Department for the Economy has an adequate budget allocation that allows and enables reform, specifically in the areas that I have just raised. The reform of Invest NI and empowering the skills programme will require investment in the short term, but, if delivered, gives us the opportunity to deliver success in the longer term. We cannot afford to miss the opportunity that is in front of us now to transform our economy. It is essential that that happens, and we need to take that opportunity. It is also important to stress that the growth of our economy is not limited to one Department. It is not just about the Department for the Economy: it includes not least DAERA but the Department for Infrastructure and the Department for Communities, which all have a role to play in economic growth.

Absolutely, I am happy to agree. I would be scared not to.

I am only joking. I jest. I am delighted to agree with that: moving to multi-year Budgets will be essential as we go forward. That brings me to my last point, and I will finish where I started. The last two years of suspension need to be the last suspension. It is essential that, in future years, we have reform and that there are no more collapses of these institutions by either of the largest parties. Every year, we will have opportunities to deliver change and create more prosperity and a prosperous society for all of our people. We all need to be over the detail of how the Budget affects our Departments, not coming in with a rushed Budget every time the Assembly is restored. We have only had a working Assembly for two years out of the past seven years, and this stop-start Assembly has held back our potential. It has caused hurt in our community, and suspension leaves its own negative legacy. Not only does it damage the public's trust in these institutions, but it makes bringing about change even more difficult and more costly, as we start further back and need to do more to bring us forward. As the Alliance Party, we look forward with hope, but now is the time to draw a line and end the cycle of collapse. We cannot build the economy that we need by starting and stopping this place. We need to see the financial growth, the new jobs and the opportunities that all of us deserve.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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