Debate contribution: December Monitoring

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 9 December 2025.

MLA

Mr John O'Dowd

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

9 December 2025

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Ministerial Statement

Heading

December Monitoring

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5296228

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Not only has he done his homework but he has been reading the dictionary. I have heard no one around the Executive table or, indeed, beyond it claim that patients should be kept in anything other than first-class, first-rate conditions in our health service. Despite the best efforts of our health workers and teams, circumstances often fall below par, but patients very often receive world-class care in world-class conditions. Where there is a maintenance backlog, I will work with the Health Minister and others to try to alleviate that. Nowhere in my statement is there any suggestion that the allocation that we have made today will resolve that problem. We are doing the best that we can with the limited resources that we have, but we will continue to drive forward change.

Let us be clear: there has been a ministerial direction approved by the Executive on health workers' pay. That has been agreed: health workers' pay will now proceed. The £7 million for police restructuring and recruitment has been agreed and will proceed. I understand that the Justice Minister will set out later how she will implement policing pay. That leaves teachers and infrastructure workers. I understand that the Education Minister is bringing forward a ministerial direction in relation to teachers' pay. As I have said, if that is laid out in the same circumstances as the Health Minister's ministerial direction was, there will be grounds for the Executive to approve that. A ministerial direction is a document on its own and contains information etc, but, in principle, that is the way to proceed to ensure that all our public sector workers receive their agreed pay awards.

I have had ongoing discussions with the Health Minister over a protracted period on the pressures that his budget is under. There has been a significant decline in the forecasted pressures on Health as a result of the work of the Health Minister, his permanent secretary, the team around them and all the staff involved in the health service. They are all playing their part in that work. As I said to another Member, a number of manoeuvres are still to be made in this financial year. There is still a fiscal event to come in Westminster with the Estimates, when we will receive some money, although we are not expecting huge amounts from that. That will allow us to further analyse the figures and better project how we will overspend. I suspect that there will be an overspend by the Executive. One or two Departments will probably give us an overspend. However, I am not in a position to predict firmly what that overspend will be at this stage, because there are still a number of moving elements. I have engaged with the Health Minister at length about that, and my officials have engaged at official level.

For clarification, I have not funded anything: this is an Executive document. The Executive approved it. The Executive can make whatever decisions they want about monitoring rounds and how they fund items. A considerable amount of capital was brought forward on this occasion. My officials work with departmental officials across the board on what could be spent in the time frame that we have, hence the presentation that you have in front of you.

How close will we get to the target? That is another way of looking at it. Monitoring rounds are not a new invention. I did not wake up during the week and say, "Here is what I will do: I will have a monitoring round". Monitoring rounds are a part and fixture of budgetary processes in the Assembly and elsewhere. They are a proven way of doing business in institutions and of redistributing moneys across Departments at set periods. I have not made that process up; it is a fixed, sound process. As I said, the reason why it is a bit later in the year is that the Chancellor's autumn Budget was approximately four weeks later than it would usually be in the Westminster calendar. That prevented me coming forward with proposals to the Executive earlier and the Executive signing off on them.

Mr Durkan asked how close we were to the target: it will be for the Communities Minister to make an announcement in that regard. He will have all of the facts and figures. On Tom's question, I have not had a discussion specifically with the AERA Minister about those vacancies. I do not know what the specific challenges are with recruitment in DAERA. The public sector faces the challenges that many private-sector businesses face with recruitment: at times, it is difficult to recruit the staff you need for the jobs that you have at that time. That question is probably best directed to the AERA Minister.

I am familiar with the Ballynahinch bypass, given my previous role as Infrastructure Minister. However, I am not sure what stage it is at, Harry. The Infrastructure Minister will have to profile her budget in a way that responds to how that project is moving forward. I have no further information for you on it.

Deliberations about empty properties will form part of the ongoing rates review. The Member will be aware that I am proposing to increase the rates on empty non-domestic properties. That consultation has gone out in the past week or so. Further exploration of the rates reviewing policy is ongoing. If there is an opportune time to further develop that proposal, it could be something that we consult on.

There has clearly been a slippage for all to see in the delivery of Casement Park. However, I and other Ministers are engaging with the Communities Minister to ensure that that project is delivered and built and that it meets the needs of the GAA. It is unfortunate that it has not progressed at this stage, but I am still confident that it will.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:08 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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