Debate contribution: Budget Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Timothy Gaston on 18 February 2025.

MLA: Mr Timothy Gaston
Party at the time: Traditional Unionist Voice
Date: 18 February 2025
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Budget Bill: Second Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4806482

Text

I begin by focusing the attention of the House on the figure of £31,041,393,000 in clause 1(2). Yes, it is not quite the £57 trillion that we were promised yesterday in the Estimates but, even so, it is a generous amount of money. I remind the House that none of that money is raised by the Assembly. The finances that we debate today are only available to Northern Ireland by virtue of our membership of the United Kingdom. In schedule 2 to the Budget Bill, we have the Department of Health Estimates, with a stated requirement of £4,053,054,000. It is noteworthy that that figure allows us to provide an NHS that does not require patients to pay €80 a day for inpatient services at a hospital. That figure also ensures that no one needs to cough up €100 when they attend accident and emergency or €65 to see their GP. Finally, I highlight the fact that part 1 of schedule 2 to the Budget Bill, which is on page 41, means that the Fire and Rescue Service will not send you a bill after it has been called out. None of that is the case for our friends across the border in the Irish Republic. My goodness, Members, it is great to be British. That having been said, as I highlighted yesterday, many of the ways in which we spend that generous sum from Westminster are highly questionable. Frankly, I think that we would benefit from a Northern Ireland Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). As conceded by the Minister and highlighted by previous contributors to the debate, it took a single TUV MLA to pick up on an error that was in the billions of pounds. I remind the House of the difference between a billion and a trillion: one billion seconds is 31 years and eight months; one trillion seconds is 31,710 years. That is a vast difference. That is why it was important to pick up on that yesterday. Let us focus on the numbers that we can relate to and rely on. If we were to open up our books to DOGE and Elon Musk, what would they make of the table in part 2 of schedule 1 on page 29 of the Bill? Do Members really believe that we should continue to spend over £1 million a year on the North/South Ministerial Council, a body that will not answer straightforward questions from Members and that says that it is not bound by the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which applies to every other government agency in the UK? What would DOGE make of a Budget that disregards the Department of Finance's own guidance and awards £24 million to Departments without any bespoke legislation being in place? Would Elon Musk continue to send thousands of pounds to Stonewall, a discredited organisation —
— that has been abandoned —
— by the public and private sector —
— in the UK.
Madam Principal Deputy Speaker, anything that I said in my remarks relates to the pages of the Budget Bill and is in that context. Indeed, I believe that we all know the answers to the questions that I posed. On a positive note, I observe that, from this day forward, the Assembly cannot wash its hands of issues and blame London, which many Members love to do. When the Budget passes, the financial decisions that it contains and every unwise penny that is spent, of which there will be plenty, will carry the "Made in Stormont" stamp. I will close by making a final observation. In the Minister's response to the debate yesterday, he questioned whether delivering the Estimates book to all Members represented value for money. If that was a polite way of questioning whether MLAs in this place ever opened that book, I share his scepticism. However, receiving the book was very helpful to my office and to me when preparing for the debates yesterday and today. There is certainly a case for reviewing whether it is necessary to produce copies for every MLA, but if he were to cut the printing of hard copies of the Estimates book entirely, that would be a most regressive step. Indeed, because of the book, a number of MLAs were able to scrutinise what has come before us and pick up errors therein.

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

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