Debate contribution: Budget 2025-26

Debate contribution by Ms Sinéad McLaughlin on 19 May 2025.

MLA

Ms Sinéad McLaughlin

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

19 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget 2025-26

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4968647

Read the official Assembly record

Text

As we debate the Budget, I recognise the fact that having a Budget and a Programme for Government in place is in itself progress. In most democracies, it is standard. In Northern Ireland, it cannot ever be taken for granted. While the Budget is a step forward in process, it is not a step forward in ambition. We face serious challenges. President Trump's economic isolationism and the ongoing war in Ukraine have proved to be deeply destabilising for the global economy. However, almost all Governments face those headwinds. The real test is how we respond to them. The Department for the Economy's strategic aims are sound. They include creating more good jobs, boosting productivity, advancing regional balance and delivering a just transition to net zero. Those goals, however, will remain little more than warm words if they are not backed up by meaningful investment. Nowhere is that clearer than in higher and further education, which, although central to delivering the skills that our economy needs, have been left underfunded, under-prioritised and overstretched. We already know that DFE has overcommitted funding this year by £0·8 million for further education and by £6·6 million for Skills for Life and Work and apprenticeships. Those overspends must be addressed in this or the next financial year. In practice, that could mean cuts to courses, fewer student places or the deferral of essential capital spending. At the same time, the Department's 2025-26 budget has increased by just 4·2%. In real terms, that means cuts to skills provision and FE provision at a time when demand for them is growing. We have already heard warnings about reduced course offerings, staffing constraints and possible delays to assured skills academies and apprenticeships. That is not speculation but the likely impact of the Budget. Further education is vital to our economy, but, instead of being empowered, our colleges are being forced to do more with less. The Department has made very little progress on its funding review of the higher education sector, with some now calling for an increased burden to be placed on students. In the face of those calls, the Minister, instead of defending students, has refused to rule out an increase in fees. The doublespeak on both sides of the border is not just inconsistent but hypocritical. Let me be clear: our universities need proper funding, but the burden should not be placed on students, who should not be punished for getting an education. It does not work in England, and it will not work here.

I totally agree. The cost of living is having a real impact on the younger generation. They are worse off than their parents and everyone else who went before them. We could now be saddling them with more debt. The Minister should stick to her party's word and rule out any increase in fees. Without proper governance here, we simply cannot meet the challenges that we face. We cannot raise productivity, which remains at 13% below the UK average, without taking a serious approach to skills. We cannot build a green economy without workers who are trained in clean energy and advanced technologies. We cannot tackle regional inequality if places such as the north-west continue to be overlooked for infrastructure, university expansion and skills development. More broadly, the Budget lacks strategic coherence. The Executive claim to be doing what matters most, but how can that be true when Budget decisions are not clearly aligned with Programme for Government priorities? As Pivotal has noted, areas such as housing, childcare and water reflect Programme for Government commitments, but most allocations continue as before without strategic re-prioritisation. Even after the final Programme for Government was published, it remained unclear as to whether health waiting list reductions would be backed by new investment. NICVA is right to say that Departments cannot continue working in silos. Government must act as a whole, not as a collection of isolated parts. We need pooled budgets, shared planning and stronger leadership from the Department of Finance in order to deliver outcomes that cross departmental boundaries. We need to move beyond using austerity as an excuse. Yes, there are structural and financial constraints, but there are also choices to be made. There are choices to be made about where we invest, how we prioritise investment and whether we plan for the long term through having a shared agenda. Childcare requires cooperation between the Department for the Economy and the Department for Education. A green economy needs DFI, DAERA, DFC and DFE all to work together. Tackling economic inactivity must involve a shared plan from the Department of Health, the Department for Communities and the Department for the Economy. None of that can be delivered out of single-year departmental budgets that are disconnected from strategic planning. Multi-year funding is therefore a must if we are to deliver meaningful change.

I stood for election to deliver better for the people whom I represent, and it is not happening for working families or young people. Communities have waited too long for action. The Budget does not deliver that. It falls short of the ambition that we need and the urgency that the moment demands. The SDLP cannot support the Budget. We will vote against the motion, not for the sake of opposition but because this region deserves better.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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