Stormont budget ‘would already be passed’ if funding matched Scotland and Wales

Northern Ireland would already have a multi-year budget in place if it was funded in the same way as Scotland or Wales, Stormont’s Finance Minister has said.

John O’Dowd made the remarks as he was challenged by SDLP opposition leader Matthew O’Toole on whether he felt “embarrassment or shame” about the powersharing Executive’s failure to agree a budget.

Mr O’Dowd published draft proposals for a multi-year budget in January but these have not been agreed by the Executive.

Following a recent Executive meeting, ministers from Sinn Fein and the DUP called for a meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer over the strained budget situation facing Stormont departments.

Mr O’Dowd told the Northern Ireland Assembly that he had brought revised budget proposals to the Executive in April.

He said: “It is clear there is determination around the Executive table to progress a multi-year budget.

“Achieving this ambition will depend on securing adequate funding from Westminster to ensure the sustainability of services and improved outcomes for people we serve.”

The minister said he was continuing to “make the case” to the UK Government that additional funding is required.

He added: “Notwithstanding the significant pressures we face, I believe the Executive must seize the opportunity presented by a multi-year budget.

“Doing so would provide much-needed certainty, support for long-term planning and enable strategic investment that delivers lasting benefits for our economy, our environment and our society.”

Alliance Party MLA John Blair asked Mr O’Dowd what the consequences were for public services if he failed to reach agreement with the Treasury.

The minister said: “I think the consequences for our public services without significant investment from the British Government are severe.

“We have heard individual ministers out stating their case over the last number of weeks and months on the impact of what will happen to public services if there isn’t further investment.

“Those are all quite bleak, so there is a responsibility on the Government to step forward here.

Mr O’Toole pointed out Mr O’Dowd had said last year he was confident a multi-year budget would be agreed, asking: “Were you wrong then or are you wrong now?”

Mr O’Dowd said he made “no apologies for being an optimist”.

He added: “My job as Finance Minister is to bring forward a draft budget to the Executive, I have done that.

“I believe that the draft budget I brought forward was the best attempt to deliver change in the quantum of funding we have had.”

He told MLAs that the SDLP opposition had not produced an alternative budget.

Mr O’Toole pointed out that Pearse Doherty, Sinn Fein’s finance spokesperson in Ireland, had used the party’s recent Ard Fheis to call for an emergency budget in the Dail.

He added: “I don’t know if you were there, but I presume if you were there you felt a degree of embarrassment or shame.

“The fact that this Executive, where you are Finance Minister, has failed to pass a budget at all, even a routine budget.

“Even if we accept that the main fiscal levers lie with the British Government, do you feel any embarrassment or shame on behalf of this Executive that while your colleague calls for an emergency budget in one part of this island, up here you can’t even pass a single budget?”

Mr O’Dowd encouraged Mr O’Toole to “end his partitionist stance” over finance.

He said: “Matthew is continuing his solo run in terms of defending the British Government and the NIO (Northern Ireland Office) around their underfunding of the Executive, their underfunding of public services, their underfunding of the economy here.

“Matthew stands alone in this constant point that he tries to raise that it is all the Executive’s fault, it is all the Assembly’s fault and the British Government have done their bit.

“Let me tell you, the facts and figures don’t stack up in favour of your argument.

“The British Government are funding Wales 8% above their level of need, they are funding Scotland 20% above their level of need – they are funding this place at its level of need.

“If they were to fund us in a similar position to Wales, we would be getting £1 billion extra, if they were funding us in the position of Scotland we would be getting £3 billion extra.

“If they had given us that money I can assure you there would be a budget in place.”

Mr O’Toole criticised Sinn Fein and the DUP for “squabbling” and asked when a budget would be passed.

Mr O’Dowd said “all the Executive parties were united” in the view that the region was being underfunded.

He said: “Come and join us rather than running around and being a spokesperson for the NIO.”