Debate contribution: Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Spring Supplementary Estimates 2023-24 and Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Estimates: Vote On Account 2024-25

Debate contribution by Mr Philip McGuigan on 9 April 2024.

MLA

Mr Philip McGuigan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

9 April 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Spring Supplementary Estimates 2023-24 and Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Estimates: Vote On Account 2024-25

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4481906

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I speak in the debate as a Sinn Féin member of the Economy Committee, and my comments will hopefully be brief. It is important at the beginning of my remarks, however, to state clearly, as others have, that the Executive have been and continue to be substantially underfunded by the British Tory Government. That Tory austerity policy continues to have a detrimental impact on the Executive's finances, our public services, our economy and, ultimately, our workers and families. I do not think that that is up for debate, as it was agreed and made clear in the letter that was sent to the British Government in the first weeks after the resumption of the institutions. We are also in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, with, in many instances, families struggling to make ends meet and businesses struggling with increased costs. Those are the constraints on the Executive and the Ministers in it. Speaking in my role as a member of the Economy Committee, I welcome the Minister for the Economy's work in his first few weeks in office, setting out the direction that he intends to take in his Department: to grow economic activity in the North; to promote regional balance; to create good jobs to benefit our citizens and to undo some of the damage from austerity; to use the advantage that dual market access offers us in promoting the North as a place in which to invest; and to grow the all-island economy for the benefit of everyone. When we talk about that work in the context of budgets and Estimates, I have to point out that, over and above the impact of austerity and funding shortfalls, the loss of EU funding as a result of Brexit will particularly hit the Department for the Economy, especially its skills programmes, apprenticeships and business support programmes. The European social fund (ESF) and the European regional development fund (ERDF) were integral to skills provision. The 10X skills strategy identified concerns about the effect that ending the European social fund would have on skills provision. The British Government's Shared Prosperity Fund falls short, leaving the Executive £90 million short of the £195 million that we received when we were in the EU. British Government schemes such as the Shared Prosperity Fund and the Community Renewal Fund gave the Executive little, if any, scope to shape skills funding to the needs of businesses and workers here. We in the North are often left to deal with the consequences of insufficient funding, bad decisions or inaction at Westminster. Despite that, our Ministers are making meaningful interventions and working to support workers, businesses and families. I commend the Finance Minister for doing just that in a positive way on a number of occasions in her first few weeks in office. It is clear to all of us that the best people to take decisions on behalf of the people living on this island are politicians elected on this island. We need the power, including fiscal power, and the sovereignty to do so.

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

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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