Debate contribution: Northern Ireland Fiscal Council Bill: Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Ms Diane Forsythe on 5 May 2026.

MLA

Ms Diane Forsythe

Party at the time

Democratic Unionist Party

Date

5 May 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Executive Committee Business

Heading

Northern Ireland Fiscal Council Bill: Consideration Stage

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5524795

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the opportunity to speak on another piece of substantive legislation from the Department of Finance, and thank the departmental officials, Finance Committee staff and all who gave evidence in Committee as we worked hard on the Bill. We welcome the Bill, which underpins the Fiscal Council's work with a statutory basis, following its operation since 2021, and the way in which it clearly emphasises its independence in governance as key. The statutory foundation of the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council will further bolster its ability to carry out independent scrutiny of our financial situation at a time of economic uncertainty and unprecedented pressures facing our public service delivery, and establishing, through this legislation, a legally binding oversight body should help our efforts. There is nothing more important to our taxpayers than to see transparency and accountability when it comes to public money. To date, our Fiscal Council has demonstrated the positive impact that it has had in improving transparency, scrutiny and understanding of our public finances. Its wide range of reports far exceeds what it is required to do, including, quite recently, its assessment of Northern Ireland Water's funding model, and shows the council's ability to scrutinise across many departmental remits and address some uncomfortable truths that hamper our ability to deliver, as well as issues coming from our public finances. As others have outlined, the clauses set out what the council would do, the required reports and some of the details of those. It is important to point to the mission of the Fiscal Council, which is:

"to bring greater transparency and independent scrutiny to the current and future condition of Northern Ireland’s public finances, to inform public debate and policy decisions".

For me, that last point is critical: it is independent assessment of Northern Ireland finances to inform policy decisions, to inform public debate, not to be a part of those. It is not for the Fiscal Council to perform as economists, pass political opinion or to be prescribed in legislation to undertake work with any potentially politically defined objectives. The Fiscal Council's independence and professional discretion is essential to protect all the things that are proposed in the amendments. All of the amendments raise sensible conversations that we all want to be a part of and debates that we all should be engaged in. However, we do not believe that they are best placed in the legislation, prescribing things as "essential duties" of the Fiscal Council. The amendments call on the Fiscal Council to do more than report on the public finances; they call on the council to give opinions, to perform as policy analysts and, potentially, economists. That is not its current role, and it could change the dynamic of how it operates. In amendment No 1, there is a call for a consideration as to the extent to which the proposed Budget aligns with the most recently agreed Programme for Government. Under its professional discretion, the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council is free to make any comment on that as it sees fit. It has done in the past, and I have every confidence that it will in the future. That is a varying opinion and part of the public debate, as Executive Ministers and those critiquing them have different views. The leader of the Opposition said in this debate that that would give the Fiscal Council:

"a clear mandate to comment on how well the Executive are delivering".

That comment is quite politically motivated, and it led to comments on his other amendments that did not make it through, including one that proposed that the Fiscal Council would make costings from Opposition proposals. That would err on the side of doing the Opposition's job for it and put the Fiscal Council into the middle of the political operation of how the Opposition and the Executive work. Passing amendment No 1 would introduce a requirement for how the alignment would be measured as well as assessed reports. The detail on how that would operate is unclear. We feel that the current application of the Fiscal Council's professional discretion, as necessary, is appropriate to inform public debate without injecting a new statutory duty. Regarding amendment Nos 2 and 3, we see the role of the Fiscal Council as being to report on public finances in order to feed economists in their work of making assessments. It is not the role of the Fiscal Council to act as an economist. There are economists in place across the Northern Ireland Civil Service whose job is to assess the output of bodies such as the Fiscal Council, and the wider impacts on each Department. In the Department for the Economy, the economists' role is also to assess the impact of public financial activities on the Northern Ireland economy. We recognise the need for and the importance of that role, and we acknowledge that it may be somewhat lacking. That brings back into question the Northern Ireland Audit Office report into some of the capacity and capability in the Northern Ireland Civil Service. That report highlights the need to enhance skill sets and roles around how reform and the work of economists may be delivered, but we do not believe that that is the role of the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council, and we do not support its being added to the legislation. Amendment Nos 4 and 5 bring in a somewhat political interpretation of what may be considered by some to be the cost of duplication. It is unclear how the proposers of those amendments intend to define that. If the Fiscal Council was so minded to undertake that work, it could do so under its current discretionary powers. However, that seems more like a potential report for a body like the Northern Ireland Audit Office or an exercise that, if it had added value, should be undertaken by each Department or arm's-length body to interrogate their data and pull out evidence on which services are genuinely being duplicated, rather than having a high-level helicopter view, as has been the case with some previous reports that are in the public domain. There is a genuine need for work to identify inefficiencies in how we deliver our public services, and it goes alongside the need for transformation of our public services. It cannot and should not be a generic piece. It needs to be reviewed properly and operationally. For example, in the health service, we have multiple arm's-length bodies, with duplication of many back-office functions, including form-filling, administration and transfer of data. That needs to be interrogated by management, internal audit, external audit and reformed. Those are operational and meaningful tasks.

I thank the Member for his intervention. I completely agree with the point that he made about the quantification of public-sector workers, but I do not necessarily think that addressing the impact of duplication in the delivery of public services, as set out in the amendment, is the answer. I believe that there is a piece of work there. It is really important, and there are wider issues around that, but my concern about adding the line into the legislation is that it is not clearly enough defined. For example, if that one piece of work were done, what other pieces of work would come under that, and how would they be resourced by the Fiscal Council? Therefore, I do not believe that it is concise enough, but I totally agree with him about the piece of work that he is suggesting needs to happen. On that, it is worth pointing out that, currently, the Fiscal Council is quite modestly staffed, with limited resources, so prescribing things in legislation would mean that some things would be prioritised over others.

To us, the critical value of the Fiscal Council is its independence. The financial reviews, opinions, presentations or bids that come from within Government are often shaped by a particular perspective. In our consideration, we reviewed and had concerns about the Department of Finance's role and how that sat in the legislation. It is important that the view of the Minister or whoever sits in the Department cannot persuade the actions of the Fiscal Council. Throughout our scrutiny, we considered the operation of that at length and received assurances that the independence of the Fiscal Council will be maintained.

The Bill also mentions that there may be additional funding requirements. We believe that it is important that the Assembly is consulted when it comes to any additional funding that is needed, because, as we set up this body in legislation, we should not write a blank cheque for it or any other public body that would allow them to grow without submitting formal proposals or business cases. We must always work together to ensure that we achieve the best value for money for Northern Ireland taxpayers. We have spoken at length in the Chamber —.

Yes.

I thank the Member for his intervention. I completely agree, but it is important to make the point that, as multiple new bodies and quangos are being set up, we must, at the outset, keep a close eye on them and not write blank cheques that allow them to grow unchecked. To us, the role that the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council plays is important, and we welcome the Bill, which will underpin the Fiscal Council's work on a statutory basis. We believe that maintaining the independence of that body is paramount and essential.

1,578 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:38 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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