Debate contribution: Multi-year Budget

Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on 25 November 2025.

MLA

Miss Deirdre Hargey

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

25 November 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Opposition Business

Heading

Multi-year Budget

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5258713

Read the official Assembly record

Text

For too long, our public services have been forced to work within the limits of short-term, uncertain, one-year Budgets that have been handed down by various British Governments. That approach consistently undermines planning, delays essential projects and makes it harder to meet people's needs. Tomorrow, the British Chancellor will announce her autumn Budget, which will have a direct impact on the Executive's finances. The Finance Minister, John O'Dowd, has previously outlined his intention to bring a multi-annual Budget to the Executive after the autumn statement. The spending review that was announced in June set a three-year funding allocation and a four-year capital allocation. That provides us with an opportunity to set the first multi-annual Budget in over a decade. Sinn Féin has consistently championed multi-year budgeting, as we know that that can lead to better planning and better outcomes for people. Of course, that will still be challenging, as we continue to operate under significant pressures and demands and a legacy of policies at Westminster that drove austerity, divesting from public services, and, of course, Brexit, while offering bailouts to bankers and tax breaks for the super rich and, of course, continuously funding wars. Of course, the Opposition leader does not want us to focus on those, and maybe I would not either if I had worked for the Tory Government during that time. Notwithstanding those challenges and the policy and fiscal climate in which we operate, there is an opportunity with the introduction of multi-annual Budgets to prioritise, plan and, of course, deliver. Our Sinn Féin Executive team, working with partners, is focused on delivering real and meaningful change. We have blocked water charges, prevented unfair hikes in student fees and prioritised health and cutting waiting lists. Through the 'good jobs' Bill, we will strengthen workers' rights, end zero-hours contracts and deliver secure employment. We will bring forward legislation to help tackle holiday hunger and extend free school meals during the holiday period. In shaping a responsible, fair and long-term Budget, Sinn Féin has been clear: we need a Budget that supports workers and families, backs our small- and medium-sized businesses and ensures that, if we are ever to have tax increases, the burden should fall on those with the broadest shoulders. We will continue to do all that we can with our stretched Budget. Many of the financial pressures that, we know, people face here come from decisions taken at Westminster. Sinn Féin has been clear and consistent in calling for a reduction in VAT on domestic energy bills to help ease the cost-of-living burden; an end to the two-child tax limit, which pushes families and children into hardship; and a cut to insurance premium tax, which inflates home and car insurance costs. It is clear that, if we are to deliver the strong, fair and accessible public services that people in our communities rightly expect, the Executive must have the proper funding arrangements and the real fiscal levers to do so. Fiscal devolution has to be part of that. If we are serious about managing our finances in a sustainable and responsible way, we need the ability to make decisions here in the interests of the people. That builds on the positive work that Sinn Féin Ministers have delivered. We established the Fiscal Commission to bring forward key recommendations on fiscal devolution. Our previous Finance Minister, Caoimhe Archibald, brought forward the fiscal framework that, for the first time, recognised and, indeed, funded our Budget on the basis of need. Of course, there is more work to be done in that area. We will continue to stand for workers and families through this period. We will continue to stand for fiscal devolution so that we can do more whilst we plan for the change that is taking place on this island whereby the people here can determine their future.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:48 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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