Debate contribution: Budget 2025-26

Debate contribution by Ms Connie Egan on 19 May 2025.

MLA

Ms Connie Egan

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

19 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget 2025-26

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4968670

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I rise to make some remarks on the final Budget for 2025-26 as the Alliance Party member on the Committee for Justice. The process of setting a Budget for any Government is not necessarily straightforward, with competing pressures between and within each Department, particularly in the knowledge that prioritising one project, programme or plan may be to the detriment of another. Without leadership and strategy, funding will not have the opportunity to make the most impact and get the most value per pound from the public purse. That is why having a Programme for Government and a road map for delivery has been vital in aligning where public moneys should be spent. With that road map in place, it is incredibly welcome that the Department of Justice has received the third-largest non-ring-fenced resource departmental expenditure limit, coming in behind Health and Education. Whilst more is always needed and there are outstanding concerns, including exceptional pressures in the realm of £227 million to be dealt with, that signifies a constructive and workable foundation for the year ahead. It must also be noted that a proportion of those sums will be redistributed to other Departments for collaborative projects that Justice is the assigned lead on, including the Executive programme on paramilitarism and organised crime. Justice is a historically underfunded Department, and this Budget recognises the role that Justice plays as a Department that cross-cuts through many of our PFG commitments, particularly in its role to create safer communities. The justice system as a whole interacts with some of the most vulnerable people across our society not just when something goes wrong but by actively seeking to protect and intervene before troubling circumstances even arise. The driving mission of the Department of Justice in the new financial year, as before, is to work in partnership to create a fair, just and safe community across Northern Ireland where every one of us respects not just the law but one another. The financial remit of the Department covers a plethora of work, including but not limited to preventing and educating on domestic and sexual abuse, funding for the PSNI, tackling paramilitarism and organised crime, reducing court delays and ensuring high standards in our Prison Service. At a time when budgets are being stretched and hard decisions are being made, the Minister and her Department have not shied away from the challenge. We cannot afford to do things the way we always have. Transformation is vital for the longevity and sustainability of every Department. I welcome the recently announced allocation from the public-sector transformation board of £20·45 million to help to speed up and transform the criminal justice system, and £2·19 million has been allocated to an electronic monitoring project. The Justice Committee has received regular updates on the financial position of the Department and has been kept informed of developments throughout the process. On 29 January, a written briefing on the draft Budget was sent to the Committee, and, on 6 February, an oral briefing took place with officials. Additionally, the Minister appeared in front of the Committee in March and spoke of the Department's financial position, including the welcome steps that she has taken to raise the need to increase policing numbers with a degree of pace to the Secretary of State, the Finance Minister and other Executive colleagues. The Minister highlighted the role that her Department has played, in collaboration with the Chief Constable of the PSNI and the Policing Board, in submitting a business case to the Department of Finance to move workforce levels up to 7,000 officers and over 2,500 staff over the next three years. The Minister outlined that it works out at about £40 million a year for five years to do the recovery work needed. I commend the Minister and her Department's commitment to that. The Department of Justice's portion of the Budget, including the indicative allocations via the June monitoring round process towards safer communities and public-sector transformation, has set a foundation to work off for the year ahead. However, with the known pending exceptional pressures and other factors, including an increase in National Insurance contributions and a rise in legal aid fees, challenges still lie ahead. I look forward to working on the Committee this year as we support the Minister in resolving those concerns.

719 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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