Debate contribution: Northern Ireland Fiscal Council Bill: Consideration Stage

Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on 5 May 2026.

MLA: Miss Deirdre Hargey
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 5 May 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Executive Committee Business
Heading: Northern Ireland Fiscal Council Bill: Consideration Stage
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5524831

Text

As others have said, it is good that the Fiscal Council Bill is being debated in the House today. There was a good level of discussion and, to be fair, agreement on the Bill at the Finance Committee. Back in 2021, former Minister of Finance Conor Murphy announced the establishment of the Fiscal Council to provide independent scrutiny of Executive Budgets and to look at their transparency. I thank Minister O'Dowd and his officials, some of whom are here today, who worked with individual Members and the Committee to provide the additional information that we required throughout the process. Ensuring that the Fiscal Council is placed on a firm statutory footing has been important since its creation. It is one of the reasons that we wanted to get the Bill to this point today. An important focus of the Bill has been on ensuring that the council operates independently. That was the subject of a lot of the discussion as we deliberated over the Bill, and it is the reason behind several of the amendments. As we consider the five amendments, it is important that we keep coming back to the Fiscal Council's main role and function. Importantly, its role is to be independent and to provide objective analysis of the sustainability of our public finances. The Fiscal Council is not there to be drawn into political positioning or to take on functions that may sit elsewhere. Some of the amendments, particularly those to do with costing party political proposals, cross that line, which risks pulling the council into the political arena. In doing so, they could undermine the very independence that gives the council its value. We already have mechanisms in place to support parties, so we should be careful not to duplicate or dilute existing work.
Of course.
I am just providing a flavour of some of the conversations that we had in Committee. I know that it is an issue that you have raised in the Chamber previously. The same applies to amendments about Programme for Government alignment and looking at the wider economic impact. Those, of course, are important issues, as has been highlighted, but it is not the Fiscal Council's job to look at them. Expanding its remit in that way would stretch its capacity. We have talked about the team's capacity and about making sure that we maximise the team. However, it is there to do the core work that the council has been set up to do. There are amendments that deal with duplication. There was mention of looking at the issues of climate change and the protocol. The Bill already gives flexibility to look at issues where they are relevant. That flexibility is important. I do not think that anybody is shying away from conversations on the cost of division or other issues. We have debated those issues in the Chamber in the past year, and I made the point that segregation on the basis of social class has a more extensive impact on outcomes, or lack of them, for people in our community. Those costs are almost double the projected costs of segregation on religious grounds. There are important issues that we need to raise, but I do not think that that is the role of the Fiscal Council. It can look at issues, but I do not think that we can predetermine at this point or, indeed, in legislation what it should look at. The council should have the independence to determine its own course of work. It also means that the council can respond to what matters when it matters, without being tied down or fixed and, indeed, without prescriptive legislation. Putting that role in the Bill would present challenges for the future. If we were to go too far in prescribing what the council must do, we would risk its ability to adapt and to focus on emerging issues and challenges. Going back to the independent nature of the structure, that would also risk prescribing what we allow the council to work on in future. For those reasons, as Jemma said, we will not be supporting the amendments. I believe that the Bill, without the amendments, strikes the right balance between accountability and independence. Importantly, it sets up the Fiscal Council to continue its valuable work and to look at areas that it feels are beneficial without being steered by the political will in here but being steered by the council itself and the expertise that it contains.

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

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