Member's statement: Opposition Rights: Executive Budget

Member's statement by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 20 October 2025.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

20 October 2025

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Opposition Rights: Executive Budget

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5188264

Read the official Assembly record

Text

We entered opposition 21 months ago, and we pledged then to be a constructive Opposition, to work hard and to improve the way that politics is done in this place. Sometimes, it feels, for our Members, like a lonely furrow, but it is an important job, and we are proud to have done it. Before the end of this year, we hope, the Executive will publish their first multi-year Budget in more than a decade. That is a critical moment for the people of this region. They will finally be able to see whether the Executive, with all their fallings-out, chaos and backbiting, are able to set a long-term Budget to deliver on the things that matter to them. That means a three-year Budget that is matched to getting waiting lists down. It also means a four-year capital Budget, we hope, that is matched to building social homes for the people who need them in our society and that delivers on critical infrastructure, including all-island rail, the A5 and other critical road, rail and, indeed, waste water projects. That, hopefully, will be set out not just in the three-year Budget but in the investment strategy. That is the context for what we as the official Opposition have done today, which was to write to the Finance Minister. Along with other Opposition parties in Dáil Éireann, such as the Social Democrats and the Labour Party, the Finance Minister's party enjoys the right to access costings from the Finance Department there. Today, as the Opposition in the North, we ask for the same right from the Finance Department here. We would like, ahead of the multi-year Budget later this year, the right to have our proposals costed by departmental civil servants. We would like them to mark our homework, because we are serious when we talk about providing an alternative and improving politics here. Often, the question is thrown back to me in the Chamber, "Where is the Opposition's alternative?". We have produced many alternatives and many papers, so much so that I am thinking of printing them and putting bows on them for Christmas presents for some of my colleagues from all parties in the Chamber. However, if we are to move to the next stage of providing a real alternative for people here and to improve the quality of our debate here in Northern Ireland, we want the same rights that are applied to the Opposition in the South of Ireland: proper, rigorous costings of our proposals. We are doing lots in the Chamber to fall out and prove to the public that they cannot expect anything from Stormont. Let us finally prove to them that we can be mature, we can move on and we can genuinely build something better here. We will put our proposal forward to the Finance Minister, and we hope that he and other parties in the Chamber will agree to it. Unlike others, we are serious about improving the quality of our politics and proving to the public that there is a point in their voting for a Government at an election and that the Opposition will be constructive and robust. I commend our proposal to colleagues.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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