Debate contribution: Budget 2025-26

Debate contribution by Mr Paul Frew on 19 May 2025.

MLA

Mr Paul Frew

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

19 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget 2025-26

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4968658

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I rise to speak in yet another Budget debate. I do not know if I am being punished, but I end up speaking on all finance-related matters, including the Budget. I must have been a bad boy in another life or in another guise. My heart goes out to the Minister, as this is a set-piece Budget debate in which Chairs of Committees will record the stresses and strains of the Departments that they scrutinise. It is more about placing on record issues about the Budget than it is about talking about the Budget. I have been here for many years, and I get that, but, sooner or later, this Executive and every Executive will have to be tested on their effectiveness. What is the difference between direct rule, where Ministers from England, Scotland and Wales direct the Departments — in effect, the Departments are in charge — and the devolved Executive and Assembly? It is that Ministers are here to make the difference. Local politicians are meant to make the difference. The Opposition are meant to enhance that in the Executive — sorry, in the Assembly. We should always respect the difference between the Executive and the Assembly. It strikes me that the SLDP will vote against the Budget not because it is in opposition but because it does not think that it is the right Budget. I remind the House that the SDLP usually voted against the Budget when it was in the Executive. Why? Because it had the luxury of being able to do so because of its numbers.

This is a set-piece Budget debate that we all have to go through and thole, but does it make a difference? I suppose the question that I pose and the challenge that I put down to the Executive and the Assembly is this: do local Ministers make a difference to the Budget? In the DUP, we have some great Ministers, and there are Ministers from other parties whom we scrutinise. However, there is another issue, and the SDLP touched on it, to be fair: the silo approach between Departments. There is absolutely no point in having a Programme for Government and having a Budget aligned to it, closely or not so closely, with that approach. Then, of course, you have the Executive's legislative programme. You want it to be the power behind the transformation: the legislation and Bills that meet and greet the Programme for Government. The Budget is there to finance the Programme for Government. We still have a lot of work to do to get to the point where all three of those are aligned. The short mandate will not help with that, nor will the one-year Budgets that we have year after year, but hopefully we will get to a point where those three stars align. When they do, we will be able to be more effective and efficient for the people whom we serve. There are many issues, and we can talk about the Budget book and the fact that it alludes to the Programme for Government at table 4.1 and table 4.3. When I look at table 4.3, I see:

"Provide More Social, Affordable and Sustainable Housing".

That is a novel aspiration. That is exactly what we require, but we will not provide more social, affordable and sustainable housing just by throwing money at it when we cannot get the infrastructure right under the ground with the water and sewerage systems. Some developers in my constituency cannot build houses because they cannot get sufficient infrastructure under the ground. They are having to go through novel engineering experiments to satisfy Water Service and the planners. If they satisfy Water Service, they will not satisfy the planners, and they are going round the ring. They cannot build the properties that we need in order to equip our people with sufficient, efficient and effective housing. That is just one aspect. What about protecting Lough Neagh and the environment? Look at the mess that Lough Neagh is in. What are we really doing to solve that issue? Whom are we blaming? It seems to me that we can blame the farmers and get away with it, yet government is polluting Lough Neagh and nothing is done or said. Nobody is taken to court, and, when they do get taken to court, who pays for that? The ratepayers — our people — pay for it. There are massive challenges. We have a health service on which we spend more per head than any other part of the United Kingdom does, yet it is failing. It is failing our people because of the growing waiting lists for cancer and other conditions, but, worse than that, there are brand spanking new hospitals that cannot even be opened. Talk about rubbing salt into the wounds of our most vulnerable. There are many challenges out there and many things that we need to fix, and I want to test the Executive to make sure that they do that. I want to scrutinise properly, efficiently and effectively to ensure that the devolved Executive and Assembly deliver for their people and take control of our governance and the Civil Service.

I thank the Deputy Speaker for the extra minute, and I thank the Member for the intervention. Again, because of the silo mentality and everything else that goes with it, we have not been able to get things right. Of course, the Member's party played a part over the past number of years in government with the atrocious legislation that it brought in, to the point where that party was even going to sack nurses for doing their job. There are many issues that we have to get to grips with. I will do all that I can to apply pressure on every Department and every Minister in this place to ensure that the Civil Service is as effective as possible and that Ministers deliver on what was promised by the devolved Executive and Assembly. My job as an MLA is to fight tooth and nail for my North Antrim constituents, and that is exactly what I intend to do.

1,026 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

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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