Debate contribution: Budget Bill: Final Stage

Debate contribution by Miss Jemma Dolan on 10 March 2026.

MLA

Miss Jemma Dolan

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

10 March 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Budget Bill: Final Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5436853

Read the official Assembly record

Text

The debate on the Budget and the financial challenges that we face has once again highlighted the gap that exists between the public services that we seek to deliver, and which our citizens deserve, and the resources at our disposal. Our public services have been damaged by a legacy of underfunding by the British Government over many years and by the austerity measures that they have implemented. Since the restoration of the Executive just over two years ago, the Finance Minister and his predecessor have pressed the Treasury for further funding for public services, which has secured an additional £1·4 billion. The spring statement in Westminster last week saw the British Government allocate £5 billion to alleviate the pressures on local councils in England. That will benefit us through Barnett consequentials to the tune of £390 million over the next three years. Although that is to be welcomed, it reaffirms the position of many of us in the Chamber: Westminster has failed to prioritise funding for front-line services, which has led to crisis interventions being required. The recent agreement of the £400 million reserve claim between the Treasury and the Executive is positive from the perspective that it will help mitigate the pressure on the Budget for the next year. However, it underlines the difficulties that we face in trying to protect our public services. It is important, therefore, that, as local representatives, we use the resources and tools available to us to deliver tangible improvements to people's daily lives. That means building on the progress that has been made in the past year on the Programme for Government's priorities, such as reducing health waiting lists, with an additional 200,000 elective care procedures taking place; further funding for the child subsidy scheme, which has benefited 19,000 families; and increasing capacity in our waste water infrastructure, with 5,000 extra properties having been unlocked. I am pleased, therefore, to see that the Budget proposals include almost half a billion pounds to improve health waiting times; £195 million to support parents with childcare costs; £433 million for water infrastructure; and £441 million for social housing, which will help the construction sector and enable more properties to be built. We now have an opportunity to enable Departments to strategically plan for the longer term by agreeing a multi-year Budget. That will also support our efforts to deliver efficiencies and transformation, which will achieve better outcomes across the public sector. I encourage the Finance Minister to continue his work on progressing a full fiscal framework and delivering more fiscal powers locally, which will allow us to make different choices that better suit the needs of our local economy and generate income for public services in a fair way.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:12 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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