Steve Aiken
South Antrim · Ulster Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for his statement. Minister, as well as the move to reduce the cost to the Assembly of vacant non-domestic properties and to increase liability so that we will not have so many vacant properties, you will be aware of the Dilapidation Bill and of the conversations that have been taking place in Wales and Scotland about…”
“Instead, that most dysfunctional Department, under the most inept Sinn Féin Minister in the Northern Ireland Assembly and a series of grossly over-superannuated permanent secretaries, gave the money back.”
“We know that her Department spends more on legal cases, fighting judicial reviews and being chastised by judges for legal ineptitude and on vesting land and ripping out hedges and fencing and then trying to unvest it and paying even more money to put back the fences and hedges that it took out.”
“We can hardly blame the current permanent secretary, as she has just taken up her post, but, surely, her predecessors must bear some accountability or responsibility, especially considering the senior civil servants' salary scale of between £146,000 and £163,000, with, of course, their taxpayer-funded pension contribution of 34·2% — £218,…”
“It must be said that £181·3 million is a lot of taxpayers' hard-earned money. It is money that is raised from local commuters, vehicle owners, farmers, local businesses, logistics companies and, above all, our constituents — those vital people whom we are elected to represent.”
“The Minister will be aware that, under the public appointments guide published by the Executive Office, it is clear that she is supposed to take independent advice before appointing board members. What independent advice did she receive, particularly about the board members selected?”
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“That money is for the people of Northern Ireland, but a large amount of it is passed to arm's-length bodies. We have heard the frustrations from the Department's officials. They do not know what is going on either. Some of the Department of Finance officials are probably some of the best civil servants in Northern Ireland. If they do not know what is going on in ALBs, including how money is moved around, that is a significant area of concern that we need to look at. The Finance Committee has spent a lot of time looking at monthly out-turns, and there have been some curious shifts of money in those. I mentioned our concerns about the Department for the Economy, bearing in mind that not only did it have its accounts qualified but they were disclaimed.”
“I thank the Member for her extensive remarks. I totally agree. I doff my hat to the Minister of Finance. One of the most difficult things to control across government is spending in ALBs. They do not even report to the same accounting standard or at the same time. Who is actually accountable and responsible? We are quite happy to chastise Ministers regularly for not doing things, but they might not find out what is going on until the day before, or, indeed, they may not be given the full picture. That says something about the culture out there, which has to change. <BR /> <BR />The Main Estimates are very clear. They set out the funding envelope within which we have to work and what the Northern Ireland Assembly is supposed to deliver.”
“Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. I thank the Member for the intervention. Yes, of course, multi-year Budgets would be very helpful. I have previously asked the Finance Minister to give us an indication of how we are going to look for the next couple of years, and whether the Treasury is likely to sign off on that, because multi-year Budgets is definitely where we need to be. <BR /> <BR />Major progress has already been made in Health, with the slashing of off-contract agency costs and better workforce planning. The most recent announcement on commissioning places will also help to put Health's finances on a more sustainable footing. However, we need to be realistic and recognise that we cannot simply wish away the problem of the shortfall in the Health budget.”
“We might encourage other Departments to do the same. <BR /> <BR />The Assembly and Executive will soon have to take a decision: should we be telling the Minister of Health not to pay our health workers the most recent set of pay award recommendations, which they deserve, or to give the trusts the go-ahead to implement devastating and counterproductive cuts to front-line healthcare; or should we be encouraging all Ministers to urgently try to get to grips with the 2025-26 situation and come up with solutions? I understand that that is much easier said than done. In the meantime, it is only right that we ask every Minister, including the Health Minister, and senior civil servant to continue all efforts to ensure that the funding that is set out in the Main Estimates is being spent in the most efficient and streamlined manner possible.”
“Speaking to the Health Committee last week, the Minister was clear that he will not be able to do all that he needs to do, or wants to do, given the significant funding gap of £600 million. <BR /> <BR />We understand Members' genuine frustration that, at times, the Department of Health says that it faces x amount of a funding shortfall, but, by the end of the year, the gap has closed. I appreciate what you said, Mr Frew: we spend a lot of time scrutinising the documents as they come through. However, to be clear, this year's circumstances are very different. Extensive saving plans have been baked in, avoidable costs have been stripped out and the new permanent secretary has devised a welcome new approach to financial sustainability. The good news is that by bringing in somebody from outside, he seems to have brought in new thinking.”
“On Friday, he published a detailed revised version of the elective care framework, which sets out in black and white how he is going to spend the money that has been set aside this year. Many thousands of patients are going to benefit directly. We also welcome his commitment to what has long been our party's priority: support for the youngest patients and those people who have been waiting for the longest. <BR /> <BR />However, once again, we need to be honest with the public. The majority — over three quarters — of the £215 million that has been presented as a new waiting-times package already existed within the Health budget, but, now, has instead been ring-fenced internally. The Executive's approach has only exacerbated the overall shortfall that our Department already faced.”
“Such financial uncertainty has no greater impact anywhere than it does in our health service. For over a decade, through financial uncertainty and repeated political instability, our health service has been expected simply to carry on. In the main, it has just about managed to do that, but, regrettably, our patients and health workers have been left to pay the price. <BR /> <BR />With a budget of £8·4 billion, we acknowledge that our health service is receiving a significant proportion of the overall block grant Budget — that is fairly much in line with the rest of our nation — and I appreciate the importance of trying to align spend with what is in the PFG. The Health Minister, Mike Nesbitt, has already set out a clear set of actions.”
“Minister, it would be much appreciated if you took the opportunity in your remarks at the end of the debate to update us on any discussions that you have had with Treasury about the CSR.”
“I welcome the chance to make some comments today on the Main Estimates 2025-26. First, I acknowledge fully that few, if any, Departments or ALBs will be pleased with the current budgetary position. We do not underestimate for one moment the challenges facing a number of our public services. We also sincerely hope that this is the last time that the Assembly and the Departments are given no choice but to work to short-term, single-year budget plans.”
“Minister, when you discussed the decarbonisation of ports, was there any discussion about making the Irish Sea a zero emissions zone (ZEZ)? We have seen that happen, particularly in Europe for the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea. I understand that there are ambitions in Dublin to do the same with the Irish Sea.”
“President Higgins complains about the rest of the world being unfair by describing Ireland as being an antisemitic reservoir of hate. Rather than denying the obvious, it is about time that he opened his eyes and parked his hypocrisy. We all deserve better.”
“Over the past few days, two further stark examples of antisemitism occurred. The first was in Boulder, Colorado, when a "Free Palestine" fanatic attempted to incinerate six elderly Jewish people, including a Holocaust survivor, who were walking peacefully, as they did every week, to call for the release of hostages who have been tortured and denied access to the Red Cross for over 20 months by Hamas and its fellow travellers. <BR /> <BR />The second was the disgraceful anti-Jewish censorship shown by much of the Irish media when they refused to publish a comment by my good friend Alan Shatter — bear in mind that he is the ex-Irish Justice Minister and Defence Minister — on the Irish Government's Occupied Territories Bill. For the record, I will read it now:”
“I thank the Minister for giving way. This is probably a moot point. The Minister will be aware that there is a lot of concern about the fact that many of the North/South bodies' accounts have not been reported in sufficient time, and, indeed, that some of them are, to put it mildly, less than qualified. Is the Minister content that the oversight and governance of the North/South bodies are adequate?”
“The other question is this: in the unlikely event of the funds actually being made available, to what degree, given the 60:40 or 75:25 splits for those joint bodies, will our cash-starved Executive be asked to increase our contribution? <BR /> <BR />Anyone with even the remotest understanding of the Irish Government's spending practices would rightly question the Taoiseach's political promises. My party does, so we have no truck with the fantasy economics of Merrion Street Upper. We will support neither the amendment nor the motion.”
“I will. We are getting there. <BR /> <BR />The Irish Republic will to be obliged to raise that to the average of 3% and then up to 5%. That is a bill that will completely swallow up the National — sorry, Apple — Wealth Fund and more. <BR /> <BR />Pontificating and freeloading has a price, which the parties opposite should recognise. In saying that we should ask for that free money for North/South bodies, the first question should be this: where is it coming from? <BR /> <BR />Secondly, anybody who looks at the accounts that the North/South bodies very occasionally present will ask whether that money is being properly utilised, where it is and whether it is being frittered away. Anybody who has been on any of the Public Accounts Committees will know that there have always been problems with that.”
“To challenge Mr Kearney's rather naive view on defence spending, the Irish Republic will be obliged to raise its paltry 0·2% of GDP spent on defence to —.”
“Furthermore, far from the largesse of extra expenditure that the Members from Sinn Féin, the SDLP and the Alliance have talked about being available, concerns are being openly raised in Dáil Éireann on the public expenditure front. I will list these in ascending order: €808,000 for a printer for Dáil Éireann; €1·4 million for a bike shed; €2·3 million for a bus shelter at the Oireachtas; €300 million spent on Metro North without 1 centimetre of track being laid; €725 million on bailing out RTÉ; and €2·5 billion in medical compensation, as well as the multimillions spent on the overrun of the national children's hospital and whatever will be needed to ameliorate the tariff wars between the EU and the USA.”
“It is worth recalling the comments of Pearse Doherty TD about people struggling to deal with the cost-of-living crisis, the inability to build social housing or, indeed, any housing and the huge infrastructure deficit and his perspective on the people of the Republic of Ireland:”
“Our party notes with interest the remarks made earlier by the Member who proposed the motion and the Member who proposed the amendment that one of the parties on the Executive, to which they both referred, is blocking access to free money that it would be, on appearances, highly suspect for us to turn down. That money includes resources from the Shared Island Fund and the National Wealth Fund, which is just a small part of the largesse with which our friends in Dublin are apparently so willing to provide us. <BR /> <BR />It is interesting to follow debates in the Dáil at the moment, with several noteworthy interventions from the Opposition.”
“I will conclude my remarks there. There is a lot to do, if we are to get the Budget across the line. We need to be extraordinarily careful if we are to be able to go to the Treasury again to ask for more money.”
“In much the same way as the Executive have been constantly chasing their shortfall of half a billion pounds, Health has been constantly trying to catch up with the cuts imposed by the Health Minister, Michael McGimpsey, in 2007, as the need for the health service has grown.”
“<BR /> <BR />We took the Health portfolio because nobody else wanted it and we believe in delivering for all the people in Northern Ireland.”
“There is a need to replace the farm payments system with some form of ring-fenced funding that can be delivered with certainty. Again, that will be problematic. <BR /> <BR />Health, which was given prominence in the Programme for Government, now needs, as agreed by all parties, to receive the funding that is necessary to allow us to do the difficult task of transformation whilst maintaining and improving existing services. While we welcome the belated recognition that tackling our appalling waiting lists needs to be an Executive-wide priority, the decision to allocate £165 million of existing funding to that will almost certainly require an Executive-wide response to allow the Department to come to a break-even budget position.”
“One can only imagine the frustration that such an experienced policeman must have felt at being chastised by a permanent secretary who seems to be more interested in process than in delivering for the people of Northern Ireland. <BR /> <BR />Another area of immediate concern that is always being reported but about which there seems to be little urgency is Northern Ireland Water. While forensic accountants have been brought in to examine 1% of its budget, the lack of investment in our waste water infrastructure is holding back everything in Northern Ireland. It is a real drag on the future of our economy. Our agriculture sector is known for its large contribution to the economy and support of the countryside. The challenges for farming are multiplying.”
“Coupled with Ulster University's appalling record in capital build project management, we must have real oversight over how the expansion of the Magee campus is being procured and managed. I wish the Finance Minister well in his endeavours with the Treasury. However, Minister, I am afraid that continuing to make the austerity argument whilst our public finance stewardship has been shown to be questionable presents more than just reputational challenges. <BR /> <BR />In-year pressures have been mounting, not just for Health but for Justice too. The funding for Justice does not meet the needs of the PSNI, our Prison Service or the justice system at all. We must commend the Chief Constable for putting his service first.”
“Minister, we will be hard-pressed to ask the Treasury for more resources when, quite frankly, the levels of ineptitude in our public finances remain readily apparent. <BR /> <BR />The next election will soon be upon us, and there seems to be a reluctance to address the issue of revenue raising. We note that the Economy Minister is tentatively kite-flying discussions on tuition fees, particularly as our higher education sector is falling further behind the leading universities in the rest of our country, with cutbacks in staff numbers and courses, while, at the same time, pushing hard for expansion in Londonderry. The mismatch between ambition and delivery is worryingly large.”
“In the private sector or any properly run not-for-profit organisations, heads would have rolled. Regrettably, that was not the case in that Department. <BR /> <BR />The fact that our Departments cannot manage public procurement should be a shock and a wake-up call that leads to greater scrutiny and accountability. While Ministers are ultimately responsible, sometimes, as we have seen over the past year, the politicians are the last to know about massive overspends in capital projects. It is clear that the culture of miscommunication, to put it mildly, in our Senior Civil Service, which was identified in the RHI and COVID inquiries, remains. The Audit Office reports, with depressing regularity, on our shortcomings in public procurements for buildings, IT systems, roads, and much else.”
“It is important for us to be able to see it, and I am sure that the Minister will refer to that. Thank you very much indeed, Matthew, for the intervention and the extra minute. It is much appreciated. <BR /> <BR />I talked earlier about efficiencies and reform. As MLAs, we must critically examine how we spend our public moneys. There are several red flags that we should be highlighting, each of which is having a detrimental impact on this year's Budget. The first one is how Departments are reporting their monthly out-turns against Budget allocations and pressures. Looking at the flow of expenditure in the Department for the Economy, for instance, especially the monthly variances with transfers, should have raised considerable cause for concern. It is no surprise that its accounts were not only qualified but disclaimed.”
“That is an uplift that is only beginning to bring us into line with where we should be. <BR /> <BR />We understand that Professor Holtham's review is nearly ready to be published. Hopefully, he will recognise that our need is probably closer to 126% or 128%. Even if that is supported by Treasury, it will probably still fall short of what we need.”
“<BR /> <BR />We know from this Budget that the Finance Minister is fully aware of departmental pressures. He and his Department have been fully informed by the work of the Fiscal Council, even though it is not yet on a statutory footing, and the Fiscal Commission, so they know that the deficit between what we have and what we need is significant. That figure in broad terms, adjusted for inflation, has remained steady at around £0·5 billion per annum over the past decade. We know, because of the great work of the Fiscal Commission and the Fiscal Council, that Northern Ireland was not being provided for appropriately on a needs basis. The fact that even the Treasury has recognised that since the talks at Hillsborough means that it has quite easily factored in a rise to 124%.”
“<BR /> <BR />While we await the implications of the forthcoming comprehensive spending review from Whitehall, it is clear that, since last autumn, much has changed on the macroeconomic level, with global uncertainty increasing. What is now becoming abundantly clear is that pressures on our Budget allocation are not going to decrease. Our party has called regularly for a prosperity agenda that is linked to a clear growth strategy at the heart of government: an agenda that must tackle the high rate of economic inactivity at 27%, which stubbornly persists and is growing, even as levels of unemployment are at historical lows. Building a pathway to prosperity with the brakes that have been imposed by the Chancellor's rise in employers' National Insurance contributions will require agility and creative thinking.”
“It was noteworthy that in this, the first proper Budget cycle post the restoration of the Assembly, many of the commitments that were made by the parties at Hillsborough Castle to prioritise health were pointedly ignored in the first draft Budget that was then published. That and the bizarre, to say the least, accounting measure of reporting the Department of Health budget from its opening rather than closing position was one of the many reasons that our party was not able to support the Budget process at that stage. <BR /> <BR />I am delighted to say that the new Minister has reverted to normal, good financial management practices — well done, Minister — for this year's Budget, noting properly that the 2025-26 Health budget position has been baselined against the 2024-25 closing position.”
“Much has been debated in the Chamber today and on previous occasions about the various Budget Bills. Although the debate on the 2025-26 Budget may appear to be rather technical and complex, the key fact to note is that it is part of the mechanism for formally agreeing £19·44 billion of the total UK Government expenditure of £35 billion in Northern Ireland. That is around £18,400 per head of population in this part of our nation. <BR /> <BR />As the Minister has already stated, the Northern Ireland Executive published their draft Budget in December 2024. They conducted a consultation, and, as part of the draft Budget process, Departments assessed their draft budget positions in line with their departmental equality scheme arrangements.”
“Minister, in the joint communiqué, they said that moving goods between GB and Northern Ireland would be easier, reducing the need for paperwork and checks due to the removal of SPS controls and other requirements. Given that customs declarations, as he has pointed out, will still be required, particularly for the faithful implementation, how does the Minister envisage that it will reduce costs and bureaucracy? Bear in mind, of course, that I was a Remainer and probably still would be.”
“Minister, my question is about when you are dealing with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. Is there any indication that we will relook at how debt is classified and whether there will be changes in how we look at the reinvestment and reform initiative (RRI) and our ability to tap into that, particularly for things such as infrastructure spending?”
“<BR /> <BR />It was also noteworthy, although, unsurprisingly, this was not mentioned by any of the media on these islands, that our nation gave Israel its highest score and that Ireland gave it its second highest score. The real people of Europe have spoken. It is about time that the antisemites did the same.”
“<BR /> <BR />The second event is the attempt by RTÉ, some so-called artists and the usual horde of myopic politicians on this island to ban Israel's entry to the Eurovision song contest. No matter that the Israeli broadcaster, Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation (IPBC) Kan, is heavily criticised by Netanyahu's Government and that the singer, Yuval Raphael, is a survivor of the Nova murder, torture and rape attack by Hamas and other Gaza thugs on 7 October, the antisemitism brigade tried to ban her participation. It is good to see that their racist and sectarian tropes were roundly ignored by the real people of Europe, as they gave Yuval's entry, 'New Day Will Rise', which is a song about peace and hope, the largest people's score, bringing the Israeli entry into second place.”
“I would like to speak about two events from the past few weeks. The first is an attack on the place of worship of our small but much-valued Jewish community. The vandalism at Belfast synagogue is another stark example of the insidious antisemitism that permeates the narrative of far too many political parties and, indeed, many so-called peace activists. All MLAs and political representatives of all parties should join me in utterly condemning attacks on our small Jewish community. At some stage, we may also hear commentary from the parties opposite and beside me condemning the scourge of antisemitism, although, for some ideological reason, that appears to be beyond them.”
“<BR /> <BR />Finally, we must encourage our Finance and Economy Ministers to make that message loud and clear, wherever that may be, either in Westminster or amongst the other regions. Above all, I commend the motion to the House.”
“We in the Assembly must do everything that we can to support our industries and companies and enable them to get through that. If that means some innovative thinking from the Economy and Finance Ministers, they should do that and lead by example. Whether it means looking at issues around rates, at improving how we do some of the training and support or at how we can improve what our higher and further education sectors are doing, all those things need to be engaged on to help grow our economy. We must recognise the fact that, across Northern Ireland right now, many of our companies are considering whether they will invest in the future, retrench or look at whether they can even continue. For a Government that came in saying that they were all about growth, we are not seeing it.”
“As MLAs here, we all need to encourage our Economy and Finance Ministers to endeavour to raise that when in joint talks with the regional Governments and, in particular, with our Westminster Government to make sure that they know and understand that. <BR /> <BR />On top of that, we are in a situation where, of course, a lot of our economy has been stifled by the Windsor framework. The additional burdens and layers of bureaucracy that are laid on, particularly for our small and medium-sized enterprises, are becoming a real challenge. As we look into the not-too-distant future, given what we see across the Atlantic — the rise in concerns about tariffs and the likely implications of those — we can see that we are moving into a very grave period of uncertainty.”
“We have concerns about the National Insurance contribution rises, bearing in mind that one of the things that was set out by the Labour Government when they were coming into power was that growth would be the most important thing. Everything that they have done since seems to stifle that growth. One of the things that we have seen in Northern Ireland — we have heard this from many parts of our economy — is that any recent attempts to grow have been snuffed out, and they have been snuffed out particularly by rises in National Insurance contributions and some of the other activities coming from the Labour Government. It seems quite strange for a Government who came in specifically to make sure that our economy was growing to have stifled it and stopped it moving.”
“Thank you, Alex. On behalf of the Ulster Unionist Party, I wish you all the best for your well-earned retirement. Mr Speaker, the nice thing, when sitting in that Chair beside Alex, is when she looks across and gives that little, quizzical look. It reminds you that you need to keep on your toes. Thank you very much for everything that you have done, Alex. You will, indeed, be missed. Don't be a stranger.”
“Of course, my party associates itself with the good work of the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service. What is the Minister doing to ensure that farmers who are affected by the fires are being supported, particularly as the situation seems to recur?”
“I thank the Minister for his statement. I welcome that £215 million is ring-fenced for health waiting lists. However, I note that £50 million of that is due to come from June monitoring, which is three and a half months away. Is there a risk that that monitoring money may not be available? What faith have you that we will get sufficient funds in June monitoring to deal with that vital issue?”
“We will now see whether the EU implements a hard border on this island as well, but, no matter what, the next weeks and months will be particularly challenging but not enough, yet again, for our very own Windsor Framework Democratic Scrutiny Committee to generate some curiosity. Some things apparently never change. <BR /> <BR />For Northern Ireland, we need our Prime Minister and our Government to work together strongly against trade dumping and the overzealous application of the article 16 provisions of the European Union protocol, because rest assured, Members, those are coming and we will not be able to get the best of both worlds — indeed, the best of any worlds. That is where we are.”
“If any United Kingdom company, including those that are based here, gets any perceived advantage, you can rest assured that the European Union will implement countermeasures. Have we forgotten how the EU strove to cut access to COVID vaccinations? Sadly, our own Government have failed to defend our economy and did not even engage the Stormont brake mechanism when they needed to. The deputy First Minister has highlighted the potential problems, but the Prime Minister must put the protection of our economy and Northern Ireland workers first. If the European Union seeks to implement countermeasures, we should use the joint mechanisms to put a hold on all Windsor framework provisions. <BR /> <BR />I have spoken many, many times of this being the worst of both worlds with the Irish Sea border.”
“Today, the turmoil in the global stock markets continues and is heading into territory that has not been seen since the COVID pandemic. A 10% tariff on our exports to the USA kicked in this weekend. For our neighbours, that figure is 20%. While the pharma sector is yet to be sanctioned, the impact of tariffs on that large part of the Republic's economy will not be far off. Some think that that differential tariff is somehow good news and that it will give a boost or advantage to our economy. If the Windsor framework debacle has taught us anything, it is that trade diversion, excessive bureaucracy and punitive measures add only costs and uncertainty. <BR /> <BR />We will all soon become very familiar again with article 16 of the protocol.”
“The uncertainty, on top of everything else including the war in Ukraine and the conflicts in the Middle East, means that we are now at an inflexion point, and anything that we do should support our economy and our output to be able to do what is best for all our people. <BR /> <BR />We will have real concerns in the days and weeks ahead. I encourage Ministers across the Executive, particularly the Finance and Economy Ministers, to focus in on the real challenges that are about to develop. We need to make sure that Northern Ireland is not left out. We cannot be in a situation where, in a tariff war, Northern Ireland comes out worse. We are already in the worst of both worlds, thanks to the Windsor framework. I do not want our situation to become even more difficult in what is likely to be a transatlantic trade war.”
“It has probably cost hundreds of millions, but nobody has yet come up with the real cost of the challenges of the Windsor framework. Now, we are looking at another set of challenges on this island: significant problems with tariffs and the way in which the Irish Republic's economy will be able to deal with them. <BR /> <BR />As a unionist, I take no joy in seeing what is likely to happen. I would take no joy in there being a transatlantic trade war. I do not believe that it would be to the benefit of these islands, Europe or the United States to become involved in a trade war starting tomorrow.”