News Story

Stormont ministers have been accused of “outsourcing responsibility for governing” to the UK government amid the ongoing impasse over striking a budget.

SDLP official Opposition leader Matthew O’Toole made the claim during an Assembly debate on the ongoing failure to set a budget for the current financial year.

Executive ministers have insisted they cannot set out a spending plan without additional financial support from the Treasury.

The Government is understood to have upped a financial offer to £1.5 billion in a bid to break the budgetary stand-off.

The Treasury has offered an additional £500 million a year over three years, the Press Association understands.

This is an increase on the £350 million the Government initially tabled.

Devolved departments are currently only allowed to spend up to 95% of last year’s funding levels in the absence of ministers agreeing the budget.

The Assembly debate was tabled by the SDLP as part of the first Opposition day of the autumn term.

Mr O’Toole said there was compelling evidence that Northern Ireland needed a “fairer and more sustainable funding settlement” from Westminster.

However, he said the Executive’s inability to agree how to allocate its existing resources was damaging public services and “undermining” its case for additional Treasury funding.

“This Executive continues to make the same circular argument,” he said.

“Ministers tell us they cannot fix public services without more money, while their failure to agree a budget means the people running those services cannot properly plan how to use the money they have.

“Then, when rightly challenged about that failure, ministers point back to Westminster. At some point they have to stop behaving like commentators and start acting like the government.”

Responding to the debate on the non-binding motion, Sinn Féin Finance Minister John O’Dowd said there had been “progress” in negotiations with the UK government but the offer of additional funds was still “insufficient” to secure a “sustainable budget”.

“The scale of the challenges facing public services here cannot be addressed through a limited, short-term package alone,” he said.

“The Executive has been calling for a fair and sustainable, longer-term funding framework that reflects need, provides stability and enables the delivery of high-quality public services for people here.

“The pressures are urgent and real. There is clear disparity in treatment compared to other devolved administrations, and this is compounded by funding losses, inflation, demand pressures, and costs stemming directly from decisions taken by the British government.

“Given the seriousness of the situation, urgent progress is now required. The dither and delay from the government must end. They urgently need to step up and deliver a fair funding settlement.

Mr O’Dowd accused the SDLP of failing to produce any alternative spending plan.

Mr O’Toole insisted that could not be achieved because of limits placed on the Opposition’s ability to work up fully costed proposals.