Debate contribution: Budget 2025-26

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 19 May 2025.

MLA

Mr John O'Dowd

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

19 May 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget 2025-26

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4968798

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

We have had an extensive debate, with, I think, 27 Members speaking on the Budget. As is perhaps understandable, it has gone back and forth on what the Executive's priorities should be, what the Executive have prioritised, what Members would like to see prioritised and which is the most important Department in the Executive. The passing of a Budget in the Assembly is somewhat less complicated than it might be elsewhere in the sense that we do not have to go through a range of taxation policies and other fiscal issues because our powers are somewhat stifled here, but we do set a Budget. To set a Budget, in some ways, is not that complicated for colleagues, whether you be in government or in the Opposition or whatever stance you may take in this place, because, basically, you have £19·3 billion to spend. The tax that you can vary is the rates, and you decide what you want to set your domestic rate at and what you want to set your non-domestic rate at. You then move forward with your block grant, which, at this stage comes to around £19·3 billion. You divide that by the number of Departments, your priorities and include the direction of travel that you want to go. My job as Finance Minister is to bring proposals to the Executive, engage with Executive colleagues on what, they believe, should be the priorities and determine whether I am in the ballpark of the direction of travel. After discussion and engagement, you present a final Budget to your Executive colleagues, and they either do or do not endorse it. In endorsing the Budget, they are stepping outside their silos. I heard comments about silo mentality, silo working and no engagement or cooperation. Each Minister who sits around the Executive table has to make a decision after asking themselves, "Am I prepared to back a Budget that isn't everything that I wanted, doesn't cover all the priorities in my Department, and am I, for the greater good, prepared to back that Budget?". On this occasion, Ministers did exactly that. They prioritised certain areas in public expenditure that matched our Programme for Government commitments and public expectations. As Danny Donnelly said, they set a tone. The Budget sets a tone. It sets a tone that says, "We are going to tackle the waiting lists head-on. We are not going to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different outcome". Yes, it presents challenges to the Health Minister, but it also presents challenges to the rest of the Executive in how we approach that. There are those who say that the Executive have not prioritised Health, but we are spending £8·5 billion on Health. Should I spend £8·6 billion, £8·7 billion, £8·8 billion, £8·9 billion, £9 billion? Feel free to stop me at any time.

OK, £10 billion, £11 billion, £12 billion, but every time that Health spend goes up, do you know what is going down? Spend on Education, Communities, Economy and Agriculture are all going down. When people ask for £10 billion on Health, the Executive and I are spending billions less elsewhere. If that is your justification, do it. The Member wants me to give way.

I heard Mr Deputy Speaker refer to your document as a prop. It would not prop up very much, I can assure you.

I will tell you why the document was produced. It is not an alternative Budget. You have had six months to produce an alternative Budget. You knew that my first challenge to the Opposition today would be this: show me your alternative. You quickly produced a five-point plan that you gave to the media over the weekend.

Yes, use it to keep yourselves cool because that is about as much use as it has.

Thank you. The document was published at some stage over the weekend. It was not shared with me formally. I have managed to get a copy of it. OK, you have produced a Budget process going forward, but you have not produced an alternative Budget. You have had six months to produce an alternative Budget. Would you spend £8·5 billion or health, or would you spend £9 billion, £9·5 billion, £10 billion or £8 billion? How much would you spend on health in this financial year? I will give way a last time.

I do not have thousands of officials working on the Budget. The Member meets the Budget team regularly, and he knows that it is in single figures. The Member has every document I have access to in terms of facts and figures around the Budget. Every Department and every Committee has access to the Budget figures that I have. You have all the information. The equation is simple: divide £19·3 billion by your priorities. How much would you spend on health this year? Would you spend £8·5 billion, £9 billion, £10 billion or £11 billion? That is what I want to know, because that is the decision that Members and the Executive have to take. The Executive, in a corporate act, have decided to prioritise health and ring-fence funding for issues such as the health waiting lists. Not only that: the Executive have provided an additional £15 million for special educational needs. How much is the alternative Budget providing for special educational needs? We will spend an additional £15 million to build the skills that are needed now and in the future. The Budget provides an additional £5 million to make our communities safer; £2 million towards ending violence against women and girls; £5 million towards the protection of Lough Neagh; and £21·3 million for Health, Justice, Infrastructure and special educational needs. The Budget has set out its priorities clearly. Therefore, those who vote against the Budget today, while they may make speeches — some of which were informative, and some of which were complete and utter nonsense, to be frankly honest — have brought nothing whatever to either the debate about the Budget or the well-being or future direction of this society. It is easy to stand up and be negative, produce negativity, demean our public-sector workers about the services that are being delivered daily and claim again and again that we are governing over a disaster. We are not governing over a disaster; we are governing over a huge challenge at this time, and, if the Executive continue to work in a cooperative, collaborative way, we can take on many of those challenges. That is my mission in politics and moving forward. I will not allow myself to be dragged down into the cesspit of negativity that sometimes circulates around this place. I will not set the Budget on the basis of the latest headline. I will not set the Budget on the basis of the quite questionable reports that are published at times, and I will not set the Budget on the basis of who shouts loudest inside or outside the Chamber. That is not the way it will operate. We will work to a plan. We have the Programme for Government and our Budget, the ISNI strategy will be published, and we will push forward despite all our challenges. Will there be fiscal devolution at some time in the future? Yes. Will there still be challenges for the Budget? Of course there will, and we will still be waiting for people in the Chamber to tell me how much they would spend on health.

1,257 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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