Debate contribution: Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Main Estimates 2025-26

Debate contribution by Dr Steve Aiken OBE on 3 June 2025.

MLA

Dr Steve Aiken OBE

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

3 June 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Main Estimates 2025-26

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4985875

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the chance to make some comments today on the Main Estimates 2025-26. First, I acknowledge fully that few, if any, Departments or ALBs will be pleased with the current budgetary position. We do not underestimate for one moment the challenges facing a number of our public services. We also sincerely hope that this is the last time that the Assembly and the Departments are given no choice but to work to short-term, single-year budget plans.

Minister, it would be much appreciated if you took the opportunity in your remarks at the end of the debate to update us on any discussions that you have had with Treasury about the CSR.

Such financial uncertainty has no greater impact anywhere than it does in our health service. For over a decade, through financial uncertainty and repeated political instability, our health service has been expected simply to carry on. In the main, it has just about managed to do that, but, regrettably, our patients and health workers have been left to pay the price. With a budget of £8·4 billion, we acknowledge that our health service is receiving a significant proportion of the overall block grant Budget — that is fairly much in line with the rest of our nation — and I appreciate the importance of trying to align spend with what is in the PFG. The Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, has already set out a clear set of actions. On Friday, he published a detailed revised version of the elective care framework, which sets out in black and white how he is going to spend the money that has been set aside this year. Many thousands of patients are going to benefit directly. We also welcome his commitment to what has long been our party's priority: support for the youngest patients and those people who have been waiting for the longest. However, once again, we need to be honest with the public. The majority — over three quarters — of the £215 million that has been presented as a new waiting-times package already existed within the Health budget, but, now, has instead been ring-fenced internally. The Executive's approach has only exacerbated the overall shortfall that our Department already faced. Speaking to the Health Committee last week, the Minister was clear that he will not be able to do all that he needs to do, or wants to do, given the significant funding gap of £600 million. We understand Members' genuine frustration that, at times, the Department of Health says that it faces x amount of a funding shortfall, but, by the end of the year, the gap has closed. I appreciate what you said, Mr Frew: we spend a lot of time scrutinising the documents as they come through. However, to be clear, this year's circumstances are very different. Extensive saving plans have been baked in, avoidable costs have been stripped out and the new permanent secretary has devised a welcome new approach to financial sustainability. The good news is that by bringing in somebody from outside, he seems to have brought in new thinking. We might encourage other Departments to do the same. The Assembly and Executive will soon have to take a decision: should we be telling the Minister of Health not to pay our health workers the most recent set of pay award recommendations, which they deserve, or to give the trusts the go-ahead to implement devastating and counterproductive cuts to front-line healthcare; or should we be encouraging all Ministers to urgently try to get to grips with the 2025-26 situation and come up with solutions? I understand that that is much easier said than done. In the meantime, it is only right that we ask every Minister, including the Health Minister, and senior civil servant to continue all efforts to ensure that the funding that is set out in the Main Estimates is being spent in the most efficient and streamlined manner possible.

Certainly.

Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I thank the Member for the intervention. Yes, of course, multi-year Budgets would be very helpful. I have previously asked the Finance Minister to give us an indication of how we are going to look for the next couple of years, and whether the Treasury is likely to sign off on that, because multi-year Budgets is definitely where we need to be. Major progress has already been made in Health, with the slashing of off-contract agency costs and better workforce planning. The most recent announcement on commissioning places will also help to put Health's finances on a more sustainable footing. However, we need to be realistic and recognise that we cannot simply wish away the problem of the shortfall in the Health budget.

I thank the Member for her extensive remarks. I totally agree. I doff my hat to the Minister of Finance. One of the most difficult things to control across government is spending in ALBs. They do not even report to the same accounting standard or at the same time. Who is actually accountable and responsible? We are quite happy to chastise Ministers regularly for not doing things, but they might not find out what is going on until the day before, or, indeed, they may not be given the full picture. That says something about the culture out there, which has to change. The Main Estimates are very clear. They set out the funding envelope within which we have to work and what the Northern Ireland Assembly is supposed to deliver. That money is for the people of Northern Ireland, but a large amount of it is passed to arm's-length bodies. We have heard the frustrations from the Department's officials. They do not know what is going on either. Some of the Department of Finance officials are probably some of the best civil servants in Northern Ireland. If they do not know what is going on in ALBs, including how money is moved around, that is a significant area of concern that we need to look at. The Finance Committee has spent a lot of time looking at monthly out-turns, and there have been some curious shifts of money in those. I mentioned our concerns about the Department for the Economy, bearing in mind that not only did it have its accounts qualified but they were disclaimed. There should be significantly more scrutiny on the funding of any Department in that position. I will bring my remarks to a close shortly. Given the issues that we have, we need to be able not only to shape the funding available but to ensure that is it spent effectively and efficiently and there is accountability for how it is spent. That may mean asking some extremely hard questions of our officials, such as questions about where delivery and accountability actually lies. We are accountable to the people of Northern Ireland. If we do not do what we are supposed to, we are out. The same question should be asked of the Civil Service.

I thank the Member for giving way. My intervention relates particularly to the Department for the Economy and is something that I raised in previous remarks. Bearing in mind the fact that its accounts were disclaimed, do you not think that the Department's accounting officer should be making sure that there is a proper presentation of information to the Committee to enable it to do its job?

1,236 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 12:46 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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