Debate contribution: Multi-year Budget Plan

Debate contribution by Mrs Naomi Long on 14 April 2026.

MLA: Mrs Naomi Long
Party at the time: Alliance Party
Date: 14 April 2026
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Heading: Multi-year Budget Plan
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5482385

Text

I recognise that the Executive as a whole will not receive sufficient levels of additional funding during the multi-year Budget period, and I am incredibly conscious of the significant pressures that Departments face and the difficult decisions that we will have to take as an Executive. However, it is extremely disappointing that the proposed Budget allocations will leave my Department facing stabilisation pressures of £101 million in 2026-27, £141 million in 2027-28 and £215 million in 2028-29. That is before exceptional pressures for holiday pay, McCloud and legacy are taken into account. A pressure of £215 million in 2028-29 sounds like a large figure, and it is, but, as an indication, it represents the entire current budgets of the Prison Service, the Probation Board, the Youth Justice Agency and Forensic Science put together. It is fairly clear that that gap cannot be closed by reducing the number of civil servants with a tweak here and a tweak there. That is a significant shortfall in the available budget, and I would go as far as to say that it would be catastrophic for the justice system in Northern Ireland. Considering the magnitude of the pressures that remain, it is difficult to see how any Department will be able to live within budget, and the limited funding to my Department, which has gone on for a significant period of time, makes that all the more difficult. There are no savings left to be found in Justice. All that we can do is start to cut the services that we provide. Most Members have been saying today that they want more of a good thing: more intervention, more protection and more engagement with communities. It is almost impossible for us to do any of that, even at the current level, with the budget as it is.
We will need to look very carefully as we approach the point at which a decision must be made on that budget.
I am also conscious, and I have raised it here, that we do not have an Executive Budget and we are now almost two weeks into the new financial year. That, in itself, is a worry. If we do not get a Budget, we can allocate only 45% of last year's starting Budget to see us through to July/August, and then only 95% of last year's starting Budget to see us through the rest of the year. That would be even more catastrophic than the draft Budget itself.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.

Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.94).
No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.

This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.

Jev’s structured answers

Probability that each statement is true of this text (0 = no, 1 = yes). A criterion counts as met at 0.60 or above.
Question	Probability	Met?
Identity framing	0.02	No
Sectarian or communal antagonism	0.02	No
Cultural grievance politics	0.01	No
Dog-whistle messaging	0.02	No
Controversy escalation	0.02	No
Legitimate policy scrutiny	0.94	Yes
Overall judgement	0.03	At or below not-flagging threshold

Context and attribution (stance)
Option	Probability
No identity-based framing (chosen)	1.00
Reports or questions it	0.00
Criticises or condemns it	0.00
Adopts it	0.00

Subject area (top five)
Subject	Probability
No identity-related subject	0.68
Legacy of the Troubles, victims and paramilitarism	0.27
Sexism, misogyny, ageism and other equality groups	0.03
Gender, sexuality, abortion and related social issues	0.01
Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials	0.00

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:18 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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