Debate contribution: Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Spring Supplementary Estimates 2024-25

Debate contribution by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on 17 February 2025.

MLA

Dr Steve Aiken OBE

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

17 February 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Spring Supplementary Estimates 2024-25

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4803060

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As the UUP spokesperson on finance, I will speak about the spring Supplementary Estimates and the Vote on Account. Despite the many continuing reservations that I and other Members from our party will speak to, the Ulster Unionist Party will support the motions before us today and the Budget Bill at Second Stage. There is no doubt that the 2024-25 closing position, as stipulated in the spring Supplementary Estimates, is much more favourable than the opening statements that the previous Finance Minister gave in the Assembly. The commentary on what was available in the Budget before what would be on the table from the Chancellor of the Exchequer was known, coupled with that on the additional moneys that could be expected, as well as the impact of the various monitoring rounds, demonstrated why we as a party could not support the Budget that was then proposed. The discussions that I and other Members from our party had at Hillsborough Castle with all parties, including the now Opposition, resulted in agreement that the Department of Health was the priority. We all know that some political promises have limited validity, but Sinn Féin, DUP and Alliance Ministers resiled from that priority with more than undue haste. I am sorry that Mrs Dodds is not here to hear that. It is perhaps fortunate that the financial settlement that the Chancellor of the Exchequer laid out in the autumn Budget statement was, in some respects, generous to us. Otherwise, our fragile health service would be in an even more perilous state, especially as we face in upcoming years the very real challenges of endeavouring to transform the Department of Health and of effecting the much-needed reform of other Departments, on which we await some detail, unlike in the Department of Health, where we have provided the details of the changes that we wish to make. We have not had any detail from the Department of Justice. We have not had any from the Department of Agriculture. Indeed, we have not had detail from any of them. As we look at the closing position of the 2024-25 Budget and at the 2025-26 Vote on Account, we can say that our principled stand gained resources for the Department of Health that other parties had sought to deny the citizens of Northern Ireland. Hopefully, we can now move forward collectively as an Executive.

Not at the moment, but I will in a minute. I am just getting to an interesting bit. It is all interesting, of course.

Steady. While we continue to fight over the prioritisation of our allocated finance in the Budget, it is on Westminster that we must continue to apply pressure. That is far from the sponging that the Secretary of State's remarks at Ulster University implied. His Government have managed to drain, lettuce-style, our public services while emasculating our growth prospects through the rise in employers' National Insurance contributions and the general demoralisation of our economy. That has put a large dent in our growth prospects. Over to you, Matthew.

Thank you very much indeed, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I refer my learned friend across the Assembly to what the Minister has been saying. Compare that with what other Ministers have said and with the Programme for Government, if it ever appears. I return to my remarks. Add to that the real and growing costs of the Irish Sea border and the radical damage being done to our agribusiness sector by the discriminatory, anti-farmers inheritance tax, and you have a perfect, self-induced, Labour-inspired economic storm. There is definitely something about removing the plank from one's own eye before criticising the mote in somebody else's. I commend the Minister and Department for reverting to the common custom and practice of budgeting. Members will recall that, about this time last year, the then Finance Minister tried to state that some Departments, including Health, had received a substantial rise in funding, using a rather bizarre and, frankly, unconvincing argument in which she compared the Health budget with the opening position, rather than the closing position, in the previous year's Budget. It is good to see that the new Minister and the permanent sec have learned that lesson. It was not just the Fiscal Council that raised a quizzical eye at the DOF's reasoning. We, as a party, are glad to see that we have reverted to normal conventions. I move to some of the detail laid out in the Minister's statements, complemented by the Northern Ireland spring Supplementary Estimates 2024-25. The Budget for Northern Ireland is significant. The table at page 16 lays out the revised figure of £26·536 billion, with £18 billion-plus in DEL, £12 billion-plus in AME, and the additional moneys coming from non-budgetary expenditure. That equates to around £14,000 per citizen in Northern Ireland. It reflects the increased statement of need of slightly above 1·24 that the Northern Ireland Executive have argued for successfully since Hillsborough. We, as a party, were very much a part of that. Much of the specifics will be covered later, but I will make few high-level comments that, I hope, are worthy of note. First, it is unfortunate that all Members have not been furnished with a hard copy of the spring Supplementary Estimates. I will follow the guidance of the Speaker and not hold up the copy that I have, but it is good to see that some of us — the Finance Committee, at least — have received a copy at long last. It took long enough.

It took far too long. We should at least be thankful that the Department of Finance was able to furnish five copies to the Finance Committee last week when we met. I wonder whether the new Finance Minister will take the need for effective scrutiny by all MLAs seriously and strongly encourage his Department to sort out the printing and provision of copies of the Estimates to all elected Members. I am looking at you across there, John: I know that you are just as frustrated about that as we are; thank you for that in advance. There are some real nuggets of information within the document. My previous learned friend from the Finance Committee, Mr Jim Allister KC, always paid particular attention to the sole authority parts of the Budget Act. At one stage, it was in excess of £1 billion, when the guidance on public finances given to accounting officers — who, hopefully, have now all completed the accounting officer course — was that it should not exceed £1 million. Members will be glad to see that the total has been brought down to £24 million. While that is still 24 times the level that it should be, it is a lot better than £1 billion. Well done, Department of Finance, for that. Some of that £24 million can be identified as dealing with welfare reform mitigation. Half a million pounds is for the Fiscal Council, and maybe the Minister can update us on the delayed legislation to put that body on a statutory footing. Could he also comment on TEO's black box amount? It seems to be out of proportion. I am sure that the Minister will be delighted to hold TEO to account on that issue, because it seems that TEO's share of the black box — over half of it — is disproportionate. That brings me to eight minutes, so I will gladly sit down.

1,241 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:01 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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