Debate contribution: Economy: Budget 2025-26
Debate contribution by Mr Conor Murphy on .
- MLA
- Mr Conor Murphy
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 20 January 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Economy: Budget 2025-26
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4744744
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The short answer is this: very challenging. Like, I have no doubt, most Departments, we got much less than what we bid for. That will present real challenges for us in areas such as skills and higher and further education, as well as for everything else that the Department is committed to supporting in the time ahead. We have been meeting regularly — both before and since Christmas — to endeavour to make sure that our budgets stretch as far as they possibly can. We need more collaboration with other Departments. There is already a significant degree of collaboration with Executive colleagues on a range of matters. We also need to ensure that the First Minister, the deputy First Minister and the Finance Minister in particular continue to lobby for a better budgetary outcome for us. It is going to be a challenging year, and, as far as we understand, we are then into a three-year Budget cycle. The opportunity for us is to try to get the budget right over the course of this year for the further three years. That requires us to work together to achieve more efficient and effective outcomes, to make sure that everything that we spend reaches as far as it possibly can and to continue to work with the British Government to try to ensure a decent outcome.
225 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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