Matthew O'Toole
South Belfast · Social Democratic and Labour Party · Northern Ireland
“I appreciate my colleague's giving way. Unfortunately, I was not here for all of the Minister's remarks — like her, I have been in the Chamber for a lot of today, so I had to pop out and attend to some other business. I presume that the Member will agree that these provisions could be more properly included in the Sentencing Bill.”
“Clearly, however, the regulatory and enforcement regime for all those watercourses and marine environments is way out of date ecologically and, indeed, economically.”
“We learned about the antics of Jeffrey Donaldson that were not criminal — so far — only after his conviction. Reporters have been able to go and find that information and people have been able to speak — felt able to speak — because Mr Donaldson has been sent to prison, convicted of appalling crimes, and is therefore less likely to seek r…”
“We are pleased, in broad terms, to support it at Second Stage. We welcome the move towards an approach to fisheries management that is ecosystem-based rather than narrowly species-based.”
“We were robust in opposing those who were not willing to deal with the nutrients action plan, for example, which should have been a core part of dealing with Lough Neagh. Of course, the farming industry needed to be engaged, and the Minister has been doing a lot of that work recently.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. In just a few hours' time, the House will go into recess for more than two months. There are two outstanding and grave matters that the public in Northern Ireland want us to deal with, but we are walking away, so I want your advice on Standing Orders.”
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“Now, it looks as though FTC will be used to build Casement Park, if it is ever built — maybe the Minister will give us a view on that while he is at the Dispatch Box. That will be the case, if we ever get it built, and I really hope that we do. That would be a novel and important use of FTC. <BR /> <BR />The NI Investment Fund has existed for a while. It has funded some important things, but it has also been used to finance things that were supposed to be innovative, cutting-edge and new economic development projects in areas of high deprivation and all of that.”
“I am happy to return to the Bill, but it was important that I put those remarks on the record, because the Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill is a substantive piece of legislation. <BR /> <BR />Before I draw my remarks to a close, in welcoming the fact that we finally have an Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill, I draw attention to the strange situation with the Northern Ireland Investment Fund, which is one of the entities for which funding is being clarified via the Bill. The Northern Ireland Investment Fund was set up a number of years ago as a way to use financial transactions capital. I have been talking about using FTC in novel ways for a long time, as have other members of the Committee. There was not much of an audience for that, a few years ago.”
“I do not want to labour the point, but I strongly reject the idea that we should debate six important, substantive pieces of legislation —.”
“The DUP Members Mr Buchanan reprimanded the Opposition earlier, saying, "You wanted legislation, and now you are complaining that you are getting it all in one day". That is not how it is supposed to work. We are supposed to be given time to debate such things. The fact that we asked for there to be more debates on legislation does not mean that it is acceptable to have six full-blown debates on stages of primary legislation in two days. That does not represent a serious legislature in operation. <BR /> <BR />We are debating two important Bills today: the Fiscal Council Bill and the Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill. We should have had those Bills a good while ago and been devoting a bit more time to them. I will leave it at that.”
“It was the case, but the amount has come down. This will help to tidy that up. From that perspective, it is useful. <BR /> <BR />This is a big Bill. There are lots of important things in it, and it will be important to each Committee, where their bodies are being granted powers. The Finance Committee is looking at three specific areas: one relates to the Audit Office; another relates to the Northern Ireland Investment Fund; and the third relates to the Consolidated Fund advances. The Committee will want to understand the exact context for those powers, working out examples of how they might be used and all of that. It is important that the Committee does that work. <BR /> <BR />I will make an important process point.”
“The Member has made a fair point. He has put his remarks on the record. I am not quite sure that there are billions of pounds of spending through the black box, now. I do not think that —.”
“For a long time, many of us have railed against the use of the sole authority of the Budget Act to legally authorise vast amounts of expenditure. That was an unsustainable and unhealthy position. For example, welfare mitigations, which are a very large item of expenditure for the Executive and one that, I think, parties agree is essential, were, for a long time, funded through the sole authority of the Budget Act — the so-called black box. That is extremely suboptimal financial management, so it is welcome that many of the powers are finally being put on a —.”
“<BR /> <BR />Although the Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill is larger than previous Bills and the number of Departments involved is larger, which might make the scrutiny process more complicated, Committee members support its principles, its passage through Second Stage and its subsequent referral to the Committee for Committee Stage. Members look forward to working with the Department, other Committees and stakeholders to provide robust scrutiny of the Bill. I look forward to hearing Members' contributions to the debate, which will hopefully aid the Committee in its deliberations. <BR /> <BR />I will make a few remarks in my function as Opposition leader. The legislation is an important piece of tidying up.”
“That order was intended to deal with situations when Departments might have sudden, unexpected additional expenditure if there were a major event, such as foot-and-mouth disease or COVID. It will also allow there to be quick additional expenditure without the delay that is caused by taking a Budget Bill through the Assembly. Currently, the limit to such an advance is 2% of the authorised Supply expenditure from the previous financial year. It is proposed that the Bill be used to increase the limit to 4%, which appears to be a sensible and prudent measure to provide further security and flexibility to deal with unexpected demands that may arise.”
“The Department believes that that will improve accountability, regularity and propriety in the use of financial transactions capital, or FTC, funding. The Executive Office agrees that that power should be provided to the Department of Finance. <BR /> <BR />The Department wishes to amend the Audit (Northern Ireland) Order 1987 to transfer the responsibility for the appointment of the NIAO external auditor from the Department of Finance to the Assembly's Audit Committee. That has been agreed by all parties involved. <BR /> <BR />Finally, there will be an increased limit on Consolidated Fund advances, which the Minister talked about a moment ago. That gives the power to make such advances from the fund as contained in the Financial Provisions (Northern Ireland) Order 1998.”
“<BR /> <BR />I will offer specific comments on only the three financial provisions. Those relate to the investment fund, the appointment of a Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) external auditor and an increased limit on Consolidated Fund advances. The Committee held a briefing on the investment fund with departmental officials at its meeting on 4 December 2024. The fund receives its allocations via the strategic investment fund (SIF), which is an arm's-length body (ALB) of the Executive Office. The Strategic Investment Board (SIB) has the legal vires to make loans, but the Department of Finance does not. That arrangement has worked so far, but it was expected to be temporary until the Department received appropriate powers. A provision in the Bill will introduce those statutory powers.”
“Consequently, in anticipation of the Bill's successfully passing Second Stage today and being referred to the Committee, we have already written to the other relevant Committees — the AERA, Communities, Economy, Education, Infrastructure, Executive Office and Audit Committees — to invite their views on the provisions of the Bill that affect their scrutiny remit. As the Chair of the Committee, it is important that I point out that, as with lots of these matters, including the Budget, it is not solely for the Finance Committee or party finance spokespersons to scrutinise the Bill in isolation; the Committees with responsibility for the Departments that are subject to the measures in the Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill should be across the detail, and that is why the Finance Committee has written to the other Committees.”
“They are often known colloquially as the "black box", because there is a little black box next to them in the Estimates documents. <BR /> <BR />As the Department of Finance is leading on the Bill, the Committee will be responsible for the Committee Stage and the overarching scrutiny of the Bill. Therefore, the Committee held a pre-legislative briefing with departmental officials on 18 September 2024. There are 16 provisions in the Bill, of which only three directly relate to the Department of Finance.”
“The Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill is a little bit like the Fiscal Council Bill in that it is significantly overdue but nevertheless welcome. I will speak as Chair of the Finance Committee, and then I will make some remarks on behalf of the party. First, I thank the Minister for bringing the Bill forward and his departmental officials for their work in keeping the Committee updated on the progress of the Bill. <BR /> <BR />The Administrative and Financial Provisions Bill creates a number of legislative changes that Departments require for routine financial matters for which it would not be practical to have specific legislation. Many of those measures are approved under the sole authority of the Budget Acts.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker, on the questions that we have just had. To be clear, under Standing Order No 45A, there is an official Opposition, and there is a leader of the Opposition recognised in Standing Orders. They have a job to do. Their job is not simply to compliment and plámás the First Minister. Further to the point that is being made, as Sinn Féin Members get up and leave the Chamber, demonstrating their view of the official Opposition, in terms of funding and resource, the official Opposition have published one policy paper per month since we returned in this term, and I am happy to place them in the Library of the House for the First Minister and others to peruse.”
“With respect, First Minister, staged photo ops and platitudes are not enough any more. You are, with respect, an elected leader, not a royal. You are blaming others when your Ministers have failed to do the basics. If the Government in Dublin had the delivery record of the Government that you lead here, your party would have, rightly, roasted them. The people of the North deserve much, much better, so, in the spirit of an end-of-year report, I suggest that, when this place returns, you and the rest of the Executive need to do much, much better.”
“First, I welcome the fact that additional funding has been announced. I represent the most diverse constituency in the North and, possibly, on the whole island. I have spoken to and engaged with lots of people from ethnic minority communities in recent weeks, as I always do, and I am afraid that they do not feel that the Executive's response to the race riots has been clear and coherent. I welcome the funding, but have you asked your Department whether it has properly got to the bottom of the issue in order to be absolutely sure that no person or organisation that is in receipt of funding from your Department, such as Communities in Transition funding, had anything to do with any of the violence or intimidation of recent weeks?”
“Critical to reducing bills will be delivery of the North/South interconnector. Given the failure to deliver on other critical cross-border infrastructure — the A5 — and your previous, at best, mixed words on the interconnector, are you committed to delivery of the North/South interconnector? Will that project be delivered before the end of the mandate?”
“There is huge vibrancy there, as well as one of the world's great universities. People come from all over the world to study and socialise and to experience the area, but there is too much dereliction. It is a blight on our hospitality offer and on economic development more generally. <BR /> <BR />I hope that the Bill can be part of a broader effort to tackle and clamp down on dilapidation. My colleague on the Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs will scrutinise it in detail. At this stage, however, we support the Dilapidation Bill.”
“On Botanic Avenue, just around the corner from my constituency office, what used to be the Botanic Lodge guest house lies derelict. I have no idea why that is so, and I make no comment on the individuals who own it. Mr Speaker, you may draw me back to the specifics of the Bill, but I would like to see Belfast City Council and other councils look at properties like that and say, "Hang on. This building is right in the middle of a culturally and commercially critical part of our district. Why the hell has it been allowed to fall into structured and facilitated dereliction and dilapidation?". I hope that the Bill creates extra powers for councils. <BR /> <BR />Dereliction is happening not just on Botanic Avenue but in parts of what is called the Linen Quarter: inner South Belfast, Great Victoria Street and Shaftesbury Square.”
“We have vacant property relief, which is very generous. I want there to be some form of property tax relief that incentivises people who have vacant properties to find new uses for them, but our system seems to subsidise such properties indefinitely as they fall into dereliction. I will wait to hear whether the Minister has anything to say about that and to hear whether the Bill will help facilitate a broader piece of work being done. In our rates system, vacant property relief effectively exists until a place is ineligible to pay tax because it no longer has any obvious economic use and is dilapidated. Does the Minister think that that issue should be covered in the Dilapidation Bill? <BR /> <BR />I will give a couple of examples in my constituency.”
“I have said, however, that Belfast City Council should have powers in such a situation. It has vesting powers, but the dilapidation powers in the Bill would better enable the council to step in aggressively and try to rescue all or part of that project. What has happened is indefensible. As you walk down North Street and Donegall Street, you see this amazing place, full of rich history, where the Belfast Enlightenment happened and where the Assembly Rooms are. All our political, cultural and intellectual traditions have a presence in that part of the city, yet we have allowed it to fall into structured dereliction. <BR /> <BR />Our rates system has incentivised that. The Bill is not about the rates system, but the two are inextricably linked. Bluntly, our rates system incentivises continued dereliction.”
“The Opposition brought a motion to the House about a chronic piece of facilitated dereliction and dilapidation in the middle of Belfast in Miss McAllister and Mr Brett's constituency. It is called Tribeca. It is in the heart of one of the most vibrant, economically and culturally rich parts of this city and this island. No one can say to me that Tribeca, if it theoretically had cultural hospitality and people living there, with all sorts of community opportunities, could not be a going concern. No one can say to me that it is not economically achievable. It is economically achievable, but the current owners have allowed a set of properties to fall into structured and supported dereliction and dilapidation. <BR /> <BR />I do not ask the Minister to speculate about that site, as that would not be proper.”
“I would also welcome hearing from the Minister about how he sees the Bill feeding into what should be broader Executive work on supporting high streets and preventing dereliction and all the associated points. As I said, the Bill touches on a range of areas of responsibility, so there should really be joined-up working. The high street task force, were it still to exist, would have been the obvious place in which some of the issues could have been taken forward. The outworkings of the Dilapidation Bill would, I am sure, have been of interest to the task force. <BR /> <BR />I will give an example in the city that I represent. Mr Butler mentioned Hilden Mill in his constituency. Painting a picture for people who are watching the debate on the Bill will help them link it to places in their area.”
“Scrutiny will be done in Committee to understand precisely how all the powers will work, how councils can apply them and what the consequences will be.”
“The Finance Department is responsible for the rates system, which is a huge part of this, and I will talk about that in one second. The Infrastructure Department is responsible for the maintenance of highways. Sometimes dilapidated buildings create issues for highways and other street architecture, particularly if there is falling masonry. The Communities Department is responsible for the built environment and regeneration. There are multiple examples of where the Communities Department is responsible for regeneration projects and is, effectively, the development partner for properties that are either dilapidated or becoming dilapidated. It will need what we are, frankly, abysmal at in this place: genuine cross-departmental working. <BR /> <BR />The SDLP Opposition welcomes the Bill as a step forward.”
“It can have a real impact if it provides for dangerous situations where there is, for example, significant antisocial behaviour or drug use. That can then facilitate all sorts of negative public health and antisocial consequences. It is an extraordinarily broad area. <BR /> <BR />I would welcome hearing more from the Minister about how he sees the Bill fitting into the broader work on dereliction. From listening to his remarks, it struck me that, when we think about the dereliction and dilapidation of high streets, although it does not exclusively affect high streets, we have specific challenges in areas where economic development is an issue. The Economy Department is, obviously, responsible for economic development. It convened the high street task force, which, sadly, is no more.”
“For people in both urban and rural communities, dilapidation is, in many ways, the physical manifestation of a sense that the community in which they live either is not getting enough support or is not what it should be and is not living up to its potential. It then has all sorts of other consequences for economic development that will be, I am sure, well aired in the debate. It can form a negative downward spiral by dissuading people from going to said high street for hospitality, retail or other community use. That then causes a negative downward spiral in the economic potential of an area. As Mr Butler, the Committee Chair, said, it can incentivise or at least facilitate certain types of antisocial behaviour.”
“First, I remind my colleague that I am not a Minister. That is the whole point. <BR /> <BR />Yes, he is right: there are such buildings in the public estate, one of which is the actual Minister's former departmental building, Dundonald House, just a short walk from here. I do not know whether it is formally dilapidated or derelict yet, but, if you go for a lunchtime run down there, you will see that it seems pretty close to that. <BR /> <BR />Dereliction and dilapidation are close to most of us, as local representatives, because we can see them, quite literally, on our streets and high streets.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Minister said that the Bill provides that, in issuing dilapidation notices, emergency action notices, dangerous structure notices and all the rest, a council may recover costs from the people who own the properties that have fallen into dereliction. Clearly, in some cases, they will be persons or entities in respect of whom, if they hold derelict assets, there might be significant difficulties in recovering costs because of the status of such assets. It will be helpful to understand how the Minister sees that playing out and how exactly it will work if there are logistical or legal challenges to a council in recovering costs.”
“We are all feeling a little dilapidated, Mr Deputy Speaker: it is the end of the Assembly term. <BR /> <BR />I will concentrate my remarks on the Dilapidation Bill, speaking on behalf of the Opposition. I am not on the AERA Committee, but I will make some brief remarks on the Bill, the principles of which we support. It is a detailed, long Bill. Committee members and the Committee Chair have clearly set it out that a Bill that has 30-plus clauses, as well as schedules, will need to be understood in detail. It creates new responsibilities or powers for councils. We specifically need to understand how precisely it will work and what support, if any, be it via guidance or financial support, the Executive will give councils to make that happen.”
“While it is not the fault of this Minister, and while we want legislation, we will have debated six Bill stages over the course of yesterday and today, despite having had lots of days of debating meaningless motions. Does the Member agree that it might be a wee bit much to have half a dozen full-blown Bill stages in two days of business, along with a few legislative consent motions?”
“I appreciate the Member's giving way. I note his concerns. I am not saying that the Executive will use an independent watchdog as cover, but it is fair enough for him to talk about that. The Fiscal Council will produce, via a law that we will scrutinise and pass, factual information that members of the public, including trade unionists, whom he and I care about a lot, will be able to scrutinise. That will be, in a sense, a scrutiny mechanism for ordinary workers, trade unionists and people who work in the public services to understand decisions that the Executive make, so, in that sense, it can be of benefit to them, too.”
“I hope that we can get the Bill through the Finance Committee speedily but rigorously, come back to the Assembly to debate any amendments and get it on the statute book in the best possible shape.”
“Work has been done previously, but we need to make sure that it is done properly. It is about getting the Fiscal Council's independence right, understanding exactly its responsibilities and what the Budget assessment and fiscal sustainability reports will look like and understanding how, if additional powers are to be conferred in future, the Department proposes to do that. It is about understanding whether all the OECD's recommendations on independent fiscal bodies are being followed and understanding the Fiscal Council's accountability to the Assembly as well as to the Executive. All of those are really important questions, and we want to get to the bottom of them. <BR /> <BR />The Bill's passage at Second Stage will be a genuine step forward.”
“<BR /> <BR />The crisis in accountability should concern us all. I worry that the public, whether they are unionist, nationalist or "Don't give two hoots", are genuinely losing complete faith in our political institutions and their ability to deliver. That, honestly, is not a party political point; it is about us as an institution. I hope that our work as the official Opposition is about changing some of that, but the Fiscal Council, at an institutional level, could and should be a real step forward towards proper accountability in financial decision-making and Budget setting. It has already done some of that over the past four or five years, and putting it on a statutory footing will aid that work. <BR /> <BR />The Finance Committee will ask specific and detailed questions and will carry out a full Committee Stage.”
“That is fine, because that is my job: I rub people up the wrong way. We are all politicians. I have a job to do, and I am pretty unabashed about that. I also acknowledge, however, that the structures of our politics have not necessitated people taking responsibility. We are all politicians who respond to the incentives that are there. We need to change the incentives. Part of changing the incentives is changing the way in which our politics works so that there is proper accountability and an independent watchdog that will set out the facts for Ministers, officials, legislators, the public, the media and all other interested parties. That, I hope, will create more of a focus on, bluntly, actual delivery, rather than, candidly, some of the sham fights and nonsense that pass for politics in this place.”
“A legitimate question for us to understand and, at least, test is whether even more independence should be baked into the Fiscal Council's status and whether its budget should be set, for example, by the Assembly via the Audit Committee, as is the case with the NI Audit Office and a couple of other scrutiny watchdogs. Those are the kinds of things that we will look at. <BR /> <BR />In broad terms, the Fiscal Council Bill is a positive development. The Committee will have the opportunity to go through it in great detail. I will make one broad point, however, which is that we have suffered and continue to suffer in this place from a crisis in accountability. I talk about that in a party political context all the time in the Chamber, and I obviously rub people up the wrong way about it.”
“It will also be important for the Committee, as we scrutinise the Bill, to understand whether the council's reporting, in effect, to the Department rather than directly to the Assembly, as, for example, with the NI Audit Office, is precisely the right way to go. There are multiple examples to draw on. The Congressional Budget Office in the United States reports to Congress: it is, primarily, a congressional reporting body, but it does the same basic job as the Fiscal Council. By the way, I am not suggesting that the council operate on the same scale as the Congressional Budget Office, but that is an example of how that line into the legislature works. The other example is the Office for Budget Responsibility, which is independent but reports to and has its budget set by the UK Treasury.”
“It does not specifically say "economic", meaning measured by GDP, GVA or whatever. I am talking about considering economic performance rather than fiscal performance. Part of what we need to do in our policymaking here is to have a greater connection between fiscal performance and broader Budget decision-making and economic performance. Incorporating that into the Fiscal Council's work may be a way in which to achieve that.”
“Not specifically, because, under clause 4(2), in preparing a fiscal sustainability report, the Fiscal Council must consider:”
“It may be that the Fiscal Council, not necessarily through having lots of economists build a brand-new model, will be able to analyse in some way the various economic forecasts out there and produce a kind of composite forecast that enables better policymaking.”
“I do not want to be totally prohibitive, because some flexibility is a good thing, but we could look at things such as having the council articulate economic performance, even if that entails simply producing a composite economic forecast that mirrors what is in the Budget documents that the Department of Finance produces every year. At the minute, those documents are a bit disconnected from the rest of the Budget process. There are a few paragraphs, or a page or two, produced on the economic context, but when Joe Bloggs is reading them, or even when MLAs or policymakers are reading them, it is not entirely clear how the economic forecast or narrative links to policy decisions or Budget decisions.”
“Its two core responsibilities, as stated in the Bill, are to prepare a Budget assessment report and a fiscal sustainability report, but there is, as the Minister said, the capacity for the Fiscal Council to do more than that. There is a clause in the Bill that allows the Department to confer additional functions on the council. During the scrutiny process, I would like to look at whether any more responsibilities and powers can be inserted in the Bill via amendment in order to be specific about what the Fiscal Council must do in law each year.”
“In broad terms, it is what the public would want and expect to see from an independent fiscal advisory body. There are other examples on these islands. There is the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) in the South and the Office for Budget Responsibility in London. I should acknowledge the role of Sir Robert Chote, who has been the head of the Fiscal Council here. He was a very good recruit by the previous Minister of Finance, and he is joined by Alan Barrett from the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) in Dublin, Maureen O'Reilly and Esmond Birnie. They have all, on a non-statutory basis, made a very significant contribution, and I acknowledge their work over the past number of years. <BR /> <BR />What will the Fiscal Council do?”
“In many ways, in the context of our devolved settlement, the Budget acts as the de facto strategic policymaking tool. I talk time and again about the need for greater strategic setting of priorities and decision-making; the need to attach Programmes for Government to, ideally, multi-year Budgets; and the need to improve Assembly and public understanding of the Budget process. All those things have been aided by the non-statutory existence of the Fiscal Council over the past four years, and they will be improved and made permanent when we put the Fiscal Council on a statutory footing. <BR /> <BR />I will make a few other points. I will not go through all the clauses, but the Bill sets out, in nine clauses and two schedules, the powers, responsibilities and status of the Fiscal Council.”
“Committee members support the principles of the Bill, its passage through Second Stage and its referral on to the Committee. They look forward to working with the Department, the Fiscal Council and other stakeholders and to undertaking in-depth scrutiny of the Bill. I look forward to other Members' contributions in the Chamber, because they will aid the Committee's scrutiny. <BR /> <BR />I will now make a few remarks in a party capacity. I genuinely think that it is very positive that we are debating the Bill today. It could have been introduced a lot sooner, and it probably should have been introduced a lot sooner, but I will leave that to one side. One of the most critical — perhaps the most critical — strategic levers that the Executive, like all Executives, have is Budget-making powers.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Fiscal Council was set up in March 2021 as an outworking of the New Decade, New Approach deal, meaning that the council is currently non-statutory and its funding is under the sole authority of successive Budget Bills. Members will be familiar with the work that the council has done and the useful reports that it has published since its establishment. It is therefore imperative that the council be fully established in legislation in an appropriate form to undertake its functions. <BR /> <BR />The Committee received briefing on the Bill from officials on 25 September 2024 to get an update on its development, and it received a briefing on 2 October from the Fiscal Council, which was, at that point, broadly happy with the content of the draft Bill.”
“That will be a really important point in enabling the Fiscal Council to do its job, because it needs to be able to get and to be guaranteed that it can get information not just from Departments locally but from UK government institutions. I would probably add to that list HMRC. <BR /> <BR />While those recommendations will be a useful tool for the Committee in its scrutiny of the Bill, members will undertake a new call for evidence on the Bill, as is normal procedure. One of the Committee's first actions when the Assembly was restored in 2024 was to request an update from the Department on the progress of the Bill. That shows the importance of the Bill, and it is one of the Committee's highest priorities, as, I am sure, it is for the Minister.”
“In addition to recommendations across those seven areas, the Committee made recommendations on the unsatisfactory information and timescales attached to the current Budget process; on the timing of Budget debates after the Executive had made decisions and how that limits the Assembly's ability to scrutinise and challenge; and on consideration being given to amendments to the Northern Ireland Act 1998 by the UK Government in order to require reciprocal cooperation between Treasury, the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and the Fiscal Council for Northern Ireland.”