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

Debate contribution by Mr John O'Dowd on 23 February 2026.

MLA

Mr John O'Dowd

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

23 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Supply Resolution for the Northern Ireland Spring Supplementary Estimates 2025-26

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5400211

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The difference is that I balance my remarks, in the sense that I will and do expect Ministers to deliver effective, efficient service, but I do not, in any way, put forward the argument that this place is properly funded. It is not properly funded, and we should not say otherwise, even for party political gain, at this stage, because we are at a very sensitive time when it comes to engagement on that with the Treasury and others. It is also worth noting that, perhaps understandably, there is a concentration, both in the Chamber at times and in the media, on what has not been achieved, but let us look at what has been achieved as a direct result of decisions made at the Executive and through the Programme for Government. The Health Minister outlined earlier this month that just over 200,000 additional activities had been delivered.

That is real and meaningful change in people's lives.

I will give you an example of a constituent who recently visited their doctor. It was a non-urgent issue but one for which they had to have elective care. On their way from the GP practice to their car, they were phoned and offered an appointment at the hospital. I accept that those are not the circumstances in every case, but there is a growing change in our health service, and that must be acknowledged. The health workers and the senior people in the health service must be acknowledged for that, and we have to recognise that a change is taking place. Since September 2024, almost 19,000 families have benefited from the childcare subsidy scheme. It has generated £19 million in savings for those families, raising an estimated £40 million when combined with tax-free childcare. There has been much discussion about the Department for Infrastructure. The leader of the Opposition wanted to know where the £133 million went. In fairness to the leader of the Opposition, I suspect that he knows exactly where it went, but all's fair in love, war and politics. The vast majority of that £133 million is the direct result of the legal case taken against the A5 and the delays that resulted from that. A significant proportion of that money has gone back to the Department for Infrastructure for other schemes that it is running. Only recently, we saw around £9 million invested in tackling the huge challenge of the state of our roads, which resulted from decades of underinvestment as well as from the second-highest rainfall in 150 years, which we experienced in January, and the intervening cold weather. That money has gone back into public services. Here is another important figure —.

I will clarify that point further. The money that has been returned to the centre was a direct result of the funding being earmarked by the Executive. The A5, the A4, the A6 and a couple of other projects were all projects with earmarked funding, so that funding had to be returned to the centre. I assure the Member that the Department for Infrastructure bid for a significant amount of that money to be returned. In the most recent rounds of financial allocations, however, we provided over £76 million for vital investment in water services, transport and the road network, including funding to fix our roads. The Department for Infrastructure benefited hugely from that. The remainder of that funding has been used for other capital projects that I will go through in some detail shortly. I will touch on the Department for Infrastructure and unlocking waste water capacity. Members should be aware that the Department for Infrastructure and NI Water have unlocked 5,300 properties as a result of the direct allocations that the Executive have made since their return in February 2024. That is higher than the number that was in NI Water's pricing period for that time. The Executive and NI Water have delivered connections to more houses than were in the original plan for NI Water's price control period. That has to be acknowledged. There has to be a question there or further inquiries made. Those connections were made at a greatly reduced cost compared with what was originally in the Utility Regulator's programme for funding. Is that something that the Executive should be criticised for, or is it something that the Executive should be acknowledged for? If we can connect more homes to our waste water capacity for less money than was originally envisaged, that is an area not for criticism but for acknowledgement: acknowledgement of the work that has been carried out by the Department for Infrastructure and NI Water, as well as by the Executive, in targeting the money to where it is needed most. Other areas on which the Executive have delivered include health workers' pay, teachers' pay, police pay and civil servants' pay. In line with our commitment to create more affordable social housing, we have provided a further allocation of £38·8 million for social housing in-year to the Department for Communities. That is in addition to the original £100 million provided to DFC. Sometimes the figures are just figures, but, on Thursday, I spoke to a young woman in my constituency who, after years of trying to get a home, had the previous day been shown her new home in a new social housing development — her and her young son, who was about nine years of age. It is the first time that they ever will ever anywhere that they can call their own "home". There are over two dozen houses in the same development, and that will be the same experience for many families. Do the Executive have challenges? Without doubt, we have challenges. Have we funding constraints? Without doubt, we have funding constraints. Are we making a difference? Yes, we are. Those who see their elective care appointments come through and those, like that young woman and her son, who have been given the keys to their new home see the differences, and then there are those 5,000 properties that have been connected to waste water treatment. That is all making a difference to people's lives. That has to be acknowledged, as well as the challenges that we face as an Executive. I turn to broader Budget issues, which we will touch on further tomorrow. Members are aware that the draft Budget has been published. It is open for discussion, and there have been significant changes, even since its publication. The £400 million reserve claim adds a new equation to my draft Budget. That will have to be taken into account as we finalise the Budget along with Executive colleagues. Colleagues asked what happens with repayments of the reserve claim; Mr Mathison asked that in particular. Are the repayments down to the Departments that receive the moneys or to the Executive collectively? That will be a decision for the Executive. As the Executive deliberate on their final three-year Budget, those deliberations will form a part of the conclusions. It is too early to suggest, as some have done, that we will not have a three-year Budget. Today is 22 February, I think.

The public consultation on my draft Budget closes on 3 March. The open-book process that the Treasury is involved in along with my Department — it is not "special measures", as Dr Aiken suggested — will close in the middle of March. That will give the Executive information, data and responses to analyse, in time, in my opinion, for it to make decisions ahead of 1 April. The next important step, as I said to the leader of the Opposition, is the important engagement that has to take place between the Executive and the Treasury about how this place is properly funded. That will take a united front from all the parties in the Chamber. I have no doubt that, despite all our differences, all the parties want to see a three-year Budget delivered. It will take a collective effort from everyone — not only the Executive parties but everyone in the Chamber — to move that forward and deliver the changes that we all want to see. I turn to comments from other Members, such as the Deputy Chair of the Committee. I thank the Committee for its work on the motions before us today and the work that we will do tomorrow. As I said, we face challenges both in delivering a Budget and in delivering one without incurring an overspend. They are huge, but, working collectively, we can do this. Mr Gildernew referred to the challenges faced by many, particularly those who interact with the Department for Communities and the services that that Department brings to the most vulnerable in our society. I also add that, over this last year, we have identified an additional £49 million for disability adaptations. That, again, makes real differences to people's lives, yet we have still a lot more work to do in that area. I have referred to Mr Mathison's comments on the Budget and how the reserve claim will be repaid etc.

Philip McGuigan said that the challenges facing health are real. Everybody accepts that, but huge work has been done in the Health Department in facing up to its budgetary challenges and delivering change. Again, I refer to the massive change in accessing timely healthcare appointments. A lot more has to be done — I am not suggesting that anybody can rest on their laurels — but the work that has been carried out by senior officials and staff in the Department and in front-line healthcare has to be commended and acknowledged. I touched on the issue of repairs to potholes etc and the funding that has gone towards that and to NI Water. Mr Brett asked about enterprise investment and raised issues about the progress on our enterprise investment zones. On 22 January, the Executive approved the Economy Minister's paper on the planned thematic allocation of the £150 million enhanced investment zone funding from the Government. I understand that that now awaits Whitehall ministerial approval and launch. I have already responded to Dr Aiken. FTC is now being provided to the Executive on the basis of net, which means that we do not have to repay it until it reaches a certain amount. In my opinion, that incentivises the willingness — I hope — of Departments to use FTC more and more, and that is a good step on the way forward for the Executive. Mr Gaston, I do not know whether it is great to be British or not. I am Irish, right? I am sure that it is great to be British. I am not demeaning it. You seem to enjoy it, anyhow. If that is a measure to go by, you seem to enjoy it, which is fair enough. I am not in any way disparaging anyone who is British — I have no difficulty with anybody declaring their nationality in that way — but the BAFTAs were last night and you did not win an award for acting, in a sense. You always have to bring the issues down to culture wars, but I will not get into a culture war with you. The fact of the matter is that we have provided open, transparent funding for all our society, including the most vulnerable and the marginalised. Any Government or any Executive should be proud of the fact that they are working with and protecting the marginalised. It is certainly something that I will wear as a badge of honour, not as a criticism. Unless there are any further comments or points of relevance from Members that I have missed, I will draw my remarks to a close.

1,954 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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