Debate contribution: Budget (No. 2) Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on 23 September 2024.

MLA

Dr Caoimhe Archibald

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

23 September 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget (No. 2) Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4543654

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

Today's Final Stage concludes the financial legislative process for the Budget (No. 2) Bill in the Assembly. The debate at the Second Stage of the Bill on 2 July was valuable, and I thank all Members for the contributions that they have brought to the process. As Members may recall, a 65% Vote on Account for 2024-25 was agreed by the Assembly on 9 April. That Vote on Account provided finance to allow existing services to continue in 2024-25, pending consideration of appropriate legislation to meet the full expenditure for 2024-25 — the Budget (No. 2) Bill. The Main Estimates for 2024-25 relate to the supply of cash and use of resources for the current year and are based on the departmental spending plans as set out in the Executive's 2024-25 Budget, which was agreed on 25 April. As Members may recall, demand for allocations far outstripped the funding available for 2024-25, and we did not have the Budget to do everything that we would have wanted to do in order to provide the public services that people deserve. The 2024-25 Budget was agreed by the Assembly on 24 May following extensive debate. I will not repeat the same detail now, as today's focus is to complete the passage of the Budget (No. 2) Bill. The Main Estimates for 2024-25 were laid in the Assembly on 19 June alongside the Statement of Excesses, and both were debated and agreed by the Assembly on 1 July. The Budget (No. 2) Bill reflects the same position. The Bill provides the vital legislative authority for expenditure by Departments and other bodies, as set out in the agreed Estimates, and authorises the use of resources and sums issued from the Consolidated Fund for previous years, as detailed in the Statement of Excesses. While the debate is on the Final Stage of the Budget (No. 2) Bill and relates to the Main Estimates as laid in June, I will talk briefly about the in-year position. I have spoken previously about the difficult budgetary position that the Executive find themselves in at this point, and Members will be well aware of the challenges that we face. The response to the urgent information-gathering exercise that I commissioned from Departments identified a reported £767 million of unfunded pressures. I have said that I am willing to allocate £500 million to Departments to help them to manage those pressures. That £500 million represents the anticipated level of additional Barnett consequentials to the Executive for the rest of the year, a figure that was arrived at through proactive engagement with Treasury on the likely direction of travel on Barnett. Clearly, that will not meet the full level of pressures that are being forecast, but I believe that it is important to give Departments as much certainty as I can as early as I can to enable them to take the decisions to live within their Budget allocations. The consequences of not living within our Budget are well understood, and I will not repeat them all here, except to say that they include the potential to jeopardise many of the gains made by parties in the financial package that accompanied the return of the Executive, as well as the interim fiscal framework that I agreed with Treasury. The Executive's funding envelope for 2025-26 will not be known until the end of October, but I anticipate that it will be challenging, and any overspend this year will make a bad situation considerably worse. I intend shortly to bring a paper to the Executive with proposals for allocating the £500 million, and I hope to get Executive agreement. It is vital that each Department take the necessary action to live within their budget once those allocations are agreed. My Department has also developed a Budget sustainability plan that will be presented to Executive colleagues shortly. The plan will be a first step in a more ambitious programme of work that will help to set public services on a more sustainable footing. The interim fiscal framework agreed that the 24% needs-based adjustment factor would apply from the date of restoration. That will have resulted in an additional £160 million for the Executive by year end based on the assumed level of £500 million of Barnett consequentials that I referred to. I am determined to continue to press the British Government to ensure that public services are sustainably funded. I have begun the exercise of gathering information from Departments to inform decisions around the upcoming Budget for 2025-26. Today, however, is about concluding the Final Stage of our legislative process for the 2024-25 Budget. Members will be aware of the importance of bringing the Budget (No. 2) Bill into law in giving Departments the statutory authority for the total amounts of resource, capital and cash in the Main Estimates. If passed, the legislation will then require Royal Assent, and there are a number of steps to go through before it reaches that stage. While I do not expect any unnecessary delay until Royal Assent is achieved, Departments will continue to rely on the 65% Vote on Account agreed by the Assembly. Some Departments have already indicated that they are approaching the limit of their available Vote on Account, with DAERA having already received a cash advance from the Consolidated Fund to cover payments being made this month.

As the year progresses, the Executive may make further decisions on the allocation of resources, and I will bring those back to the Assembly, through the spring Supplementary Estimates and a subsequent Budget Bill, at the end of the financial year. I express my gratitude, once again, to the Finance Committee for agreeing to accelerated passage. I also thank all the Committees and their members for the level of scrutiny that they have brought to the process. This is the Final Stage of the legislative process for the Bill. I look forward to hearing any final thoughts that Members have on this important piece of legislation.

1,002 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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