Debate contribution: Budgetary Pressures

Debate contribution by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on 10 September 2024.

MLA

Dr Steve Aiken OBE

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

10 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Budgetary Pressures

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4517452

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The Ulster Unionist Party will support the motion and the amendment. The question for many of us is where we sit with the idea of relative need. Any of us who were on the Finance Committee will have listened to the Fiscal Council give the Committee its report and talk about where we sit. One question that we have to ask ourselves is this: are we at 124% already, or, as has been suggested by some on the Fiscal Council, might we be above that figure at 125%, 126% or 127%? For all Members, it is important, particularly as the Finance Minister and the First Minister and deputy First Minister go to meet Rachel Reeves this week, to make our case clear. There is no doubt — any of us who have dealt with the Treasury will understand this — that many questions will be asked about where we are going with revenue raising and, with the resources that we have, what we are doing to grow and develop them. Those will be difficult questions to face, because our Budget is not adequate for all the things that we need to do. My friend on the other side of the House talked about prioritisation. Like many people in this room, I have sat at various tables, particularly at Hillsborough Castle just before Christmas, where we said, "Health is the number-one priority". Health is expensive. All public services are expensive. How we deliver and support that has to be the key. There will be difficult choices about prioritisation, and we have to make those difficult choices. The rest of our nation — England, Scotland and Wales — is pushing ahead with above-inflation settlements in health. The indications that we are getting from Treasury — you sometimes have to take what Treasury says with a large and notable pinch of salt, but there is no doubt about this — are about the importance of raising the resources that will be needed for health. When that comes back to Northern Ireland as part of our settlement, we will need to make sure that the appropriate levels are given to the Departments that are in most need. Every Department needs a lot, but there has to be a large degree of prioritisation and realism, particularly if we have to make a strong argument for delaying raising revenue. I sense that, when she returns, the Finance Minister, in whom and in whose ability I have a lot of faith, will have to have really difficult conversations with her Executive partners and, indeed, the House about where we are and where we are likely to go. Those are the critical issues. Many people accuse the House of lacking realism. We all know what the problems are. We all know where the pressures are. We will have to come up with strong answers about how we will deal with the situations and pay for the issues as they go forward. Minister, I wish you all the best on Thursday. Everybody in the House who wants to see Northern Ireland work wants you to do your best to get the right results, but it will be a difficult autumn. For budgetary reasons, it will be a difficult autumn in which to try to ensure that the Programme for Government matches the resources and the deliverables. All of us have a difficult task ahead, and that is why my party welcomes the motion and the amendment and will support both.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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