Debate contribution: Budget Bill: Second Stage

Debate contribution by Mr Peter Martin on 24 February 2026.

MLA

Mr Peter Martin

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

24 February 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget Bill: Second Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5404519

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I will speak in my capacity as the DUP's infrastructure lead. I will focus my comments on the financial issues facing the Department for Infrastructure and the implications of inaction. The vote that we are talking about today is about money: how it is allocated and how Departments spend it. It is worth making the point, as many contributors have, that there are limited resources and, of course, infinite demand. In this case, and in all such cases, it becomes a question of how we use our limited resources and, to use an American colloquialism, how much bang we get for our buck. In economics, that is often referred to as efficiency. Given the budget that has been provided to DFI, the Minister for Infrastructure needs to do two things: prioritise more effectively and deliver quality services more efficiently. The Department's starting resource budget for 2025-26 was £637 million, an increase of £77 million on the previous year. Its capital budget for 2025-26 was £917 million, which was the largest capital budget ever proposed for any Northern Ireland Civil Service Department and an increase of £69 million on the previous year. I remain concerned, however, that the issue is what is done with that budget. In my view, the Minister needs to consider her priorities and place money behind them. Seldom does a day go by without us hearing someone talk about potholes. In fact, I heard this week that a minister incorporated potholes into his Sunday morning service. If that is a priority for the Minister for Infrastructure, there needs to be investment in it, but she needs to decide what her priorities are.

We discussed yesterday in the debate — some Members have reflected on it this afternoon — the fact that the Minister received £38 million in the last two months of the current financial year to spend on roads, mainly from the monitoring round, and an additional £8 million from the Finance Minister as part of a winter recovery fund. I have to ask — other Members have also wondered— whether that lends itself to strategic spend or whether it is a panicked, stopgap measure. Does it address the underlying issues that infrastructure in Northern Ireland faces or is it a hurried temporary fix, a little like some of the pothole repairs that we see in Northern Ireland? My wider concern with the strategy that the Infrastructure Minister is adopting to address the issue that my colleague across the way from South Down mentioned is with the funding gap for Northern Ireland Water. It is that sticking plaster that I have just referred to. My fear is that that solution, which the Member referred to as a three-strand or a three-pronged approach, is simply a stopgap: something that will get the Department and, perhaps, the Minister over the line until the election in May next year. She has put all her faith in what she has called the three-strand approach to solving the Northern Ireland Water crisis. I know that the SDLP Member for Newry and Armagh calls it the three-straw approach. In summary, for those who are not on the Infrastructure Committee, there are three aspects to the approach. The first is more money from Treasury, and if we had a pound for every Member who has stood up and said that today, perhaps that would solve Northern Ireland's Budget crisis. The second is voluntary developer contributions, and the third is the Water, Sustainable Drainage and Flood Management Bill, which the Committee is currently scrutinising.

I will indeed give way to the Member.

I thank the Member for his question, and I, of course, agree with him. Perhaps he is driving towards greater efficiency in Northern Ireland Water. Obviously, we had quite a critical report of NIW quite recently.

Sorry.

I will see whether I can wind my way back into it. How the Infrastructure budget is being spent is having a real impact. We know of the 19,000 new residential units that are unlikely to proceed any time soon because of the problem that we are discussing. Housebuilding completions have dropped to a 60-year low in Northern Ireland, so we need a solution to the financial pressures that Northern Ireland Water faces. I do not believe that the three-strand approach will be the solution to that.

Of course I will give way to the Minister of Finance.

I think that the Principal Deputy Speaker is making a criticism of you, Minister. Perhaps she is; I do not know. You are the Finance Minister, so I will, of course, answer your question. I was not in the Chamber yesterday for that, Minister, but I am aware that, whilst those additional homes have been unlocked, we do have a depression in the market, with developers not building new houses because they cannot get the waste water infrastructure. That has been very well documented at the Committee. What impact is that crisis having on Northern Ireland and the general finances in Northern Ireland, and why is it relevant? It is relevant to anyone who is buying a house. Recent data from the Nationwide house price index for 2025 showed that house prices in Northern Ireland are going up 10 times the rate of house prices in London. House prices in Northern Ireland are now outstripping house prices in the Republic, which, as far as I am aware, was having a housing crisis.

Whether you are a working family or a young couple who want to buy your first house, that is the impact that that is having on house prices and finance in Northern Ireland.

The current head-in-the-sand approach is not what we need. The leader of the Opposition said earlier that Ministers are appointed to do a ministerial job, to assume the office and role and to make decisions. I am increasingly concerned that, whether you live in Strabane, Fivemiletown, Newry or Donaghadee, the impact of what we are discussing will be felt by you eventually, unless something is done about it.

I thank the leader of the Opposition for his question. I am not in the Executive or party to those discussions, but, from the conversations that I have with the private sector and people who are interested in putting foreign direct investment (FDI) into Northern Ireland, I know that that is where we would like to get to. I do not know whether that is achievable this year. The Finance Minister might tell us shortly. I certainly agree with the Member on investment security and knowing where the economy is going, and that it is wider than that. If the Infrastructure Minister wants to bring additional ideas or concepts to the table, I, as Chair of the Infrastructure Committee, am sure that the Committee will continue to work constructively with her. I am confident that the Committee would work alongside her. However, we need to solve that looming crisis for Northern Ireland. The Committee will continue to hold the Minister to account for the budgetary and strategic decisions that she makes, based on what we are talking about today, that impact on service delivery throughout Northern Ireland.

1,193 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:02 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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