Debate contribution: Budget Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 25 February 2025.

MLA

Mr John O'Dowd

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

25 February 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4815507

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I thank all the Members who expressed their views in the debate and who contributed to earlier debates on the Bill and its associated Supply resolutions. I listened with interest, and, whilst I may not agree with all the arguments presented, it is useful for me as Finance Minister to hear all the views expressed. Despite the financial challenges facing us, Ministers in the Executive have worked together to make positive differences in allocating resources to improve the lives of workers, families and communities. We have not simply involved ourselves in rhetoric. One of the first acts of the restored Executive was to prioritise public-sector workers by allocating £688 million for public-sector pay awards. The Budget provided £25 million for a range of support measures in respect of early learning and childcare. That included the local childcare subsidy scheme. Over 14,000 children have already been registered, and it is reducing family childcare bills by 15%, supporting hard-working families by making childcare more affordable. The draft 2025-26 Budget doubles the investment in funding for the childcare strategy to £50 million. That is not rhetoric; that is action; that is reality. Close to £1 billion of funding was allocated in the June and October monitoring rounds, providing additional funding for health, education, policing, social housing and waste water infrastructure. My Department extended the small business rate relief scheme, supporting almost 30,000 businesses, and restored the Back in Business and rural ATM schemes following requests from business stakeholders. The £290 million Derry and Strabane city deal was signed, which will be transformational for the north-west. The Executive, Members of the Assembly and councils united to campaign successfully for the Treasury to lift the pause that it had placed on the Causeway Coast and Glens and Mid South West growth deals. That shows what can be achieved when we work together to deliver for those who elect us to serve. My predecessor, Dr Caoimhe Archibald, signed the interim fiscal framework, which continues to deliver significant additional funding for public services. I am determined to build on the progress made. I hope that the 2025-26 Budget can be our last one-year Budget so that we can move to a multi-year Budget and a longer-term approach, enabling us to focus on transforming public services, which is essential to put our finances on a sustainable footing. I turn now to some of the comments made by Members. Rightly, Members will challenge the Executive and decisions made by individual Ministers. That is what the Chamber is for, but, when it comes to budgetary matters, there is an onus on Members to offer alternatives. Rhetoric gets you nowhere. It does not get you the £50 million for childcare; it does not get you the £600 million for public-sector pay; and it does not get you the 124% uplift on the fiscal floor. I am not looking just at you, Mr Carroll. You are not the only one involved in rhetoric in the Chamber. You just happened to catch my eye.

Rhetoric did not achieve any of that. Unity of purpose achieved it; the Executive working together achieved it; and a common focus on improving the lives, livelihoods and well-being of the workers, families and communities we all represent achieved that. Do challenges remain? Undoubtedly. Significant challenges remain for the Executive, but, if we continue to work together and focus on the challenges, we can continue to take those challenges head on and continue to improve the lot of our communities. Mr O'Toole understandably raised the issue of accelerated passage and the commitment from the Committee to work with others on perhaps changing Standing Orders on that. I am, in principle, supportive of that. We are not doing anything underhand. I am not suggesting that anybody is suggesting that we are doing anything underhand, but we are following the process. We are time-bound by a number of factors in the fiscal rules that govern the Assembly and the fiscal rules that govern Westminster. However, I understand the concern of some Members about the wording of Standing Orders and why they wish to attempt to change that.

Yes, £688 million is not rhetoric. That was given into the hands and the pockets of public-sector workers by the Executive. If you can match the £688 million worth of rhetoric, we will have a debate on it, but the record speaks for itself. The Executive have stood by public-sector workers and will continue to stand by public-sector workers as we move forward. Again, the issue around multi-year Budgets has been raised, and it is well rehearsed. Members accept that, if the second phase of the spending review, as announced by the Labour Administration, goes ahead, we will hopefully move to a three-year resource Budget and a four-year capital Budget. If that is the case, I am committed to bringing a similar yearly Budget to the Executive for approval. On the issue of the hard copy of the Budget, I received my hard copy today as well. I question the need for producing hard-copy documents when it comes to sustainability. I understand that some Members like to have the hard copy, but, to me, there is a sustainability issue with that. Moving forward, concerning my engagement with the Treasury, I assure Members that I will meet the Treasury on Thursday for a joint meeting with the Welsh and Scottish Parliaments. I will press the Treasury again on a number of matters, including National Insurance contributions and the need for us to have certainty on those figures. It may be June before we have certainty, given the ending of the fiscal programme in Westminster, but I will press it on that matter, along with a range of other matters that are impacting on the lives of families and workers and on businesses in our society. I am pleased that Professor Gerry Holtham will take forward the next phase of research on the fiscal floor here. We have a case to present to the Treasury and others on that to ensure that we get the funding required to deliver public services in this part of the world and so that we can support those who are delivering public-sector services as we move forward as well. That is generally the broadness of the debate. Again, I thank Members for their contributions. I have no doubt that scrutiny of budgetary matters will continue at Committee and in the Assembly. I look forward to bringing a Budget Bill for 2025-26 to my Executive colleagues and to the Assembly in due course, once we have agreement at the Executive. I am happy to — I am required to — bring to the Assembly a Bill, which will also, at a future stage, include a debate about what our regional rate will look like. I assure Members that I am always happy to engage with them and discuss such matters as we move forward.

1,160 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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