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“Clearly, however, the regulatory and enforcement regime for all those watercourses and marine environments is way out of date ecologically and, indeed, economically.”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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“Further to the previous question, deputy First Minister, many members of the public watching us will not know what the Castlereagh Foundation is. It emerged in a private bilateral discussion between, I believe, your party and the then Tory Government. Perhaps you would like to put on the record what the Castlereagh Foundation is and whether you have had discussions with the First Minister about its establishment.”
“2) Bill are failing the public of Northern Ireland, I have given two: social housing and our crumbling waste water infrastructure. Those are two areas in which we have had no clarity, no ambition and no delivery. When it is pointed out and Ministers are challenged on it, we are told, "People should be grateful". We are not; it is not good enough. Thank you.”
“When the Executive are challenged on it, the answer is simply, "We do not want to do water charges". I agree: I do not want to do water charges either, but, in that case, there needs to be an explanation as to whether we are going to borrow more, or there is going to be progress on some kind of developer charge, which has been talked about but never explained, or are things simply going to be left alone? That would mean that the housing backlog, the businesses that cannot invest and all the other challenges, including environmental damage, that come from having crumbling waste water infrastructure are simply left to fester. <BR /> <BR />I have picked two connected things. I have not gone through a laundry list of all the ways in which the Programme for Government and this connected Budget and Budget (No.”
“It also comes back to issues that are connected to the delivery of social housing, one of which is water infrastructure. The waste water funding for NI Water in this Budget, which we are authorising in the Budget (No. 2) Bill today, does not even touch inflation. Everyone — from the Construction Employers Federation to housing associations to any academic who has looked at this — will say that one of the core drivers of unlocking housing in this country is our crumbling waste water infrastructure. By the way, that goes for businesses as well. I am sure that every MLA deals with these issues. There is no plan to fund and invest in our water infrastructure. A big report is coming out about that tomorrow. <BR /> <BR />The Finance Minister, who was previously Infrastructure Minister, appears, at times, to be in denial about this problem.”
“There is literally no chance of us coming close to delivering much-needed houses, particularly in areas such as my constituency and others where working-class communities need extra houses. We are a long way short of the ambition for 100,000 and more homes over the next 15 years, which we were given just a few short years ago in the Chamber. Barely 1,000 will be delivered this year. However, we are told that we should be — not to put words in the Minister's mouth — grateful for what is being built. No, we should demand better from our Budget and from our Governments.”
“If it makes people uncomfortable, that is fine too. <BR /> <BR />Social houses are already way, way, way under where they need to be.”
“I am happy to have given way for the intervention and that the Minister has clarified that. I was paraphrasing. I do not have his precise words in front of me. He said that we should acknowledge the fact that there were 1,000 homes that families would be in. That is true, of course, but our job is not to simply say, "Isn't it good that some people will benefit?". It is wonderful that those families will benefit, but that is not the target, and that would not be a good enough answer south of the border, so it is not a good enough answer here. I recognise and accept that the powers in the North are different from powers in the South, but my job, as the official Opposition — in the same way that it is the job of the Opposition in the South — is to hold Ministers to account for delivery for people.”
“You should be glad that there are 1,000 social homes". Those were, effectively, the words of the Minister last week. It is because he does not have —.”
“You do not need to be a mathematical genius to work out that, if you have two years left to build just under 6,000 homes, and you are building only 1,000 in year 1, there is no way at all that you will get anywhere near to your target. It is fooling people; it is gaslighting people to pretend otherwise. Then, to turn around and say to people, as the Minister did last week, "Be grateful" is always the way. It is warm words, waffle and promises, and then, when people are held to account for the failure to deliver, the message that we get back is, "Be grateful". That would never be said to voters south of the border. It would never be accepted on behalf of Sinn Féin by voters who expect action on the housing crisis but are simply told, effectively with the back of the hand, "Be grateful for it.”
“Those include getting waiting lists down; dealing with the crisis in our water infrastructure in the broader ecological breakdown that we face; dealing with childcare; and dealing with social housing. <BR /> <BR />The Programme for Government was very short on specific targets. It was long on warm words, waffle and pleasant photographs. One of the very few specific targets in the Programme for Government was for social housing starts. It said that there would be just under 6,000 social housing starts by 2027 — by the end of the mandate. We are now two years off the end of the mandate. The Communities Minister has brought forward his budget proposals for this financial year, and he says that the maximum that he can build, in terms of getting them started, is 1,000 social homes.”
“<BR /> <BR />I go back to the question about the Programme for Government: the public expect clear targets, and they expect delivery, not least when big promises were made and when, in the first full financial year of us being back — 2024-25 — there was, as the Minister's own officials acknowledged at Committee, a record year of allocations. The argument is constantly made that we are constrained by finances. Of course, we have inherited a decade and a half of austerity. There is no doubt that it has been pernicious and damaging. However, last year saw a record allocation to the Executive, so the public have a right to ask, "What is it being used for? How are funds being strategically prioritised to deliver on the things that we care most about?".”
“You can see what those allocations are, and many of them are very worthwhile: £2 million for ending violence against women and girls; £50 million for the childcare strategy; and £215 million for the elective care programme. However, that £328 million should be read alongside the £27 billion that we are authorising. It is barely 2%. It is the case that a few per cent of the overall Executive Budget are going to deliver Programme for Government priorities. I imagine that the Minister may — he may not — turn around to me and say, "That is the wrong way to read it. Our Programme for Government priorities stand by themselves, and we also have to do all the everyday business of government".”
“<BR /> <BR />I promise not to detain the Assembly for very long today, but I want to call out the abject failure of the Executive to set clear targets in the Programme for Government and then meaningfully put resources behind it. It is not just me saying that: it is the Department's own Programme for Government and Budget, when you read them alongside each other. Table 4.1 of the Budget sets out the resource departmental expenditure limit (DEL) — that is, everyday, day-to-day spending allocations — matched to Programme for Government priorities, and the total matched to Programme for Government priorities is £328 million.”
“While it is welcome that we are now in a much more regularised Budget process than we have been here for many years, there are very profound concerns about the Budget-making process, strategic prioritisation and, frankly, the delivery of the Executive. The Budget (No. 2) Bill is a direct consequence of, and puts into law, many of the decisions that were made in the Budget 2025-26, which was voted on — obviously, the Opposition opposed it — in the Assembly just a few short weeks ago. The Budget 2025-26 was supposed to be an enaction of, or to put into place, the financial resources to deliver on the Programme for Government.”
“Those changes include the Assembly's ability to now authorise the use of income directly in the Bill. The Executive agreed the draft Budget for 2025-26 on 29 December 2024, and that was subject to a 12-week public consultation that ended on 13 March. The Executive agreed the 2025-26 Budget on 3 April. The Supply resolution for the Main Estimates agreed last week set the individual budgets for Departments and other bodies. The Budget (No. 2) Bill gives that resolution legal authority by virtue of the Committee's agreeing at its meeting on 28 May 2025 to accelerated passage for the Bill. The Committee supports the call in the motion that the Bill pass its Second Stage. <BR /> <BR />I will now make some remarks in my other capacity as leader of the Opposition.”
“<BR /> <BR />As I highlighted in my speech on the Main Estimates and Supply resolution last week, the spend under the sole authority of the Budget Bill, which is also known as the black box, has fallen to around £13 million in the Bill. It has fallen considerably from the £25 million that it was at this point last year. Obviously, we hope that it keeps falling and that, at that point, we may even have a financial provisions Bill that has received Royal Assent, which would mean that the amount would be a lot less. <BR /> <BR />The implementation of the Financial Reporting (Departments and Public Bodies) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 has resulted in a number of changes to how financial information was presented in the Estimates last week and in today's associated Budget (No. 2) Bill.”
“<BR /> <BR />With budgets tight, it is vital that Departments apply their efforts to living within their means. Better management of budgets would mean an end to overcommitment in the hope of Estimates coming to the rescue, as it were. Hopefully, the work on an updated fiscal framework will provide for more sustainable budgets and, indeed, more flexibility in things such as end-year flexibility and the Budget exchange scheme. I have asked now for several updates from the Minister, but he will have lots of time for that in his winding-up speech later on. The Committee has received a draft of the Fiscal Council Bill and hopes to soon receive a draft of the financial provisions Bill. Those will go some way to address spending that is being approved under the sole authority of the Budget Bill.”
“I acknowledge the fact that the Minister and his officials have kept us abreast of those developments, and we look forward to being briefed on the outcome of the CSR at our Committee meeting next week on 18 June. <BR /> <BR />The Committee and, of course, the Assembly are aware of the fact that the Budget situation remains tight. The Committee stands ready to work with the Minister and his Executive colleagues to improve Budget sustainability. The Minister has already received and published a report on the cost of doing business in Northern Ireland. He is consulting on potential changes to the rating system, as well as undertaking a strategic income review under the terms of the Executive restoration package. I look forward to hearing an update from the Minister on both those items in his winding-up speech.”
“We passed the Supply resolution last week, approving nearly £27·5 billion to be granted out of the Consolidated Fund to provide for Departments and other bodies. That is a significant sum, as it follows on from what was a bumper year in 2024-25 in drawdown from the Executive restoration package and other significant Barnett consequentials. The interim fiscal framework that was signed with Treasury last May provides for a 24% supplement to Barnett consequentials. Obviously, that is welcomed in the Chamber. We express hope that the work that Professor Holtham has undertaken on behalf of the Department and has now provided to the Treasury will persuade officials there that Northern Ireland's relative need requires additional resource. Obviously, we all support that. I hope that we get an update on that in the CSR announcement on Wednesday.”
“Other Committee members will have the opportunity to give their views during the debate as it proceeds. <BR /> <BR />Accelerated passage is not the ideal way in which to do business. The return of multi-annual Budgets will, however, promote greater scrutiny throughout the rest of the Budget process, as Departments will be able to budget over the longer term, thus providing them with the opportunity to spend more strategically, to plan better and to offer greater security to those in receipt of public money to provide services to the public. <BR /> <BR />As Members are aware, the Budget (No. 2) Bill will give Departments legal authority to incur spending and use resources as agreed by the Assembly's Main Estimates document.”
“As I have highlighted before, however, granting accelerated passage to the Bill is not just taken as a formality by the Committee. Each request is considered and debated: there is no waving through. Members understand that the nature of the Budget process is such that accelerated passage is necessary. The Executive do not get a free hand to decide the timescales that the Budget process follows, however. Everything flows from the actions that the UK Treasury takes initially, so Committee consensus on granting accelerated passage reflects members' understanding of the process, but it should not be taken as meaning untrammelled support for the Budget. I would not express that view in my Opposition capacity, but I am reflecting the Committee's view.”
“The Committee is working hard to ensure that Budget scrutiny reaches a new level, with greater access to more user-friendly information leading to greater transparency. As I said, multi-annual Budgets will be core to that. <BR /> <BR />I will now turn to the Minister's request for the granting of accelerated passage for the Budget (No. 2) Bill. At its meeting on 28 May, the Committee agreed that the Bill should be granted accelerated passage, and I wrote to the Speaker informing him of the Committee's decision. The Committee's agreement to accelerated passage for the Bill is predicated on:”
“<BR /> <BR />The Minister has talked about the five-year business plans, which I welcome as leader of the Opposition and as Chair of the Finance Committee, but it would be helpful if he could give an update on the latest timings. There should be much better opportunity for Statutory Committees to scrutinise departmental budgets. At this stage, it is important to say, as, I am sure, other finance spokespersons for the relevant parties will do, that it is not the job of the Finance Committee to scrutinise every Department's budget. It is the job of individual Statutory Committees to scrutinise their budget. Doing that will combine with the work that the Finance Committee has done and continues to do on simplifying financial information that is collated by the Minister's Department and then shared with other Committees.”
“It is impossible to be genuinely strategic and to deliver meaningful long-term change using single-year Budgets. <BR /> <BR />Wednesday's announcement is expected to unveil resource spending for the next three years, with capital spending being announced for the next four. As has been said previously, multi-annual Budgets could be a game changer. It will be up to the Finance Minister and his Executive colleagues to make use of that change in order to deliver Budgets more strategically, allied to five-year business plans with baseline funding that, it is anticipated, Departments will publish in the autumn. Again, it would be helpful if the Minister can confirm that.”
“On Wednesday, we will know the outcome of the comprehensive spending review (CSR). The CSR will tell us the settlements for Northern Ireland Departments and other bodies. As I said last week during the debate on the Main Estimates, the CSR announcement will be an important moment. Hopefully, it will mark the end of over a decade of single-year Budgets for this place. It would therefore be helpful if the Minister can indicate when he hopes to be able to give a clear and detailed update to the Assembly on the outworkings of the CSR, in specific and more general terms, for the block grant. Members have remarked at length in the Chamber about how difficult annual Budgets make running public services and making broader policy decisions.”
“Officials briefed the Committee on the Main Estimates and the Bill most recently at our meeting on 28 May, and we debated the Main Estimates in the Chamber last week. It is to be hoped that the strong working relationships that have been forged between the Committee and the Department will continue, despite there being the odd issue here and there. We need to deal with a specific issue to do with legislative consent motions, which I will come on to talk about later. <BR /> <BR />It seems not so long ago that we welcomed the Minister of Finance to his portfolio, not long before we debated the Second Stage of the previous Budget Bill, but it feels like an eternity since I spoke at Second Stage of the Budget (No. 2) Bill in 2024, as, since then, there has been a Westminster election, and there is, of course, now a new UK Government.”
“I will speak as Chair of the Finance Committee and as leader of the Opposition. Thankfully, in an untimed debate on legislation, we do not have the regular anomaly whereby a Chairperson's time and the Opposition's time are divided. I welcome that, but I promise not to detain Members too cruelly with my remarks. <BR /> <BR />First, I will speak as Chair of the Finance Committee. As I said, this is an untimed debate, and I thank the Minister of Finance for his comments and for bringing the Bill to the Assembly. The Committee also thanks the relevant departmental officials, whose regular engagement with the Committee has allowed members to put Budget scrutiny on a healthier trajectory than it has been in recent years.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I welcome the fact that you have made that announcement. It is an extremely serious matter, into which the Committee for Finance has been looking. Frankly, it is a shambolic situation. Will your office confirm, today or subsequently, whether this is the first time that the Assembly has failed to be given the opportunity to give legislative consent when it has been sitting? In addition, is there some mechanism whereby the Assembly can write to UK Government to make clear to them that we have had no opportunity to give or withhold legislative consent for that Bill?”
“Those things are all connected in East Belfast, South Belfast and across the North, so let us not play the game of simply pretending that there is nothing that we can do to deliver the social housing targets that people were promised just a few short weeks ago. <BR /> <BR />The Communities Minister is here, and I hope that he will be able to provide us with an update on the housing supply strategy and Housing Executive reclassification, but he, along with others, including the Finance Minister, needs to account for the failure to deliver targets. I hope that the Finance Minister thinks better of simply asking people in the North to accept something that his party would never ask people in the South to accept.”
“I am drawing my arguments towards East Belfast, because as others have said and as I am sure the representatives of East Belfast will admit, the failure to invest in NI Water and the inability to get connections is a fundamental problem. Those things are all connected. <BR /> <BR />Apologies, Mr Deputy Speaker, if I strayed into the political and went outside the normally collegiate tone of an Adjournment debate. We are having this debate very early on a Tuesday afternoon, so people will forgive me for getting a little bit too political, given that we are still well in the middle of what is a working day in most people's daily life.”
“Members are speaking to me from a sedentary position. I know that this is an Adjournment debate, but that is true. That is a fact. South of the border, missing targets like that, with the Minister saying that we should be grateful, would not simply be waved off as acceptable. It should not be acceptable north of the border. <BR /> <BR />The Finance Minister also failed to engage seriously on the question of water, and waste water infrastructure is at the heart of so many of the fundamental challenges that we face. We had Question Time with the Environment Minister earlier, and given the fact that Lough Neagh is becoming an open-air sewer, the crisis in our water system is a fundamental challenge to our environment. We cannot get housing starts, and the fact that connections are so far behind is a major drawback to economic investment.”
“If the Southern Housing Minister were to stand up in Dáil Éireann and say, "You should be grateful for the fact that we missed the housing target", one can imagine what the Sinn Féin representative would say in response to that, with all due respect. It would not be, "Yes, we are grateful".”
“There are a few cricket fans in the Chamber, so, to use a cricketing analogy, our run rate is nowhere near where it needs to be to get us to 6,000 by 2027. If we are delivering 1,000 homes this year, that leaves barely a year and a half to deliver another 4,500 to 5,000. If I am wrong, the Minister can correct those statistics. Why are we in that situation? Clearly, part of it is the budget shortfall, but there are other challenges. I am afraid that we heard some of that from the Finance Minister earlier, who said that we should be grateful. When he was challenged on the lack of delivery of social housing, he effectively said that we should be grateful that 1,000 homes are being built. I am afraid that it does not work like that, with the greatest of respect.”
“It came up in the debate on the Main Estimates, and we talked about it yesterday when the Minister brought his statement on his departmental budget to the House. We can all come here and talk about the issues and the discrete things that need to happen in particular constituencies, and we can talk about the particular levers, but the Executive are already falling way short of their plans to deliver social homes. <BR /> <BR />The Programme for Government is quite clear — to be fair, the Minister acknowledged this and was at least upfront about it — about the fact that there would be just under 6,000 new social housing starts. The number was unusually and admirably specific, and, because of that, we can already see that the Executive are short of that target.”
“<BR /> <BR />One thing that I will say to the Minister is that, as Chair of the Finance Committee, and, indeed, as a Committee member before that, I have been pretty repetitive about unused financial transactions capital (FTC), which is a type of spending. I have always said that we would be a constructive Opposition, and I will acknowledge when Departments and Ministers actually try to make use of FTC. The Minister's Department has done a bit of that and has been responsible for pushing in that regard. That is to be welcomed. <BR /> <BR />It would be remiss of me if I were not to use the opportunity of an Adjournment debate that is about a specific constituency challenge to talk about the broader challenge that has come up in the past couple of days.”
“I agree with those Members who said that we need to make progress on the reclassification of the Housing Executive. The creation of the Housing Executive is something that my party, and, in a sense, the historic civil rights movement, was involved in setting up. We are proud of that and want to see the Housing Executive revitalised so that it champions and is at the forefront of social housing. That way, rather than just managing social housing allocation, the points system and area planning, it can build social homes and not just leave that to housing associations. Having said that, housing associations do an important job.”
“I am in East Belfast now; I am in East Belfast all the time. East Belfast is a wonderful constituency. Its working class communities face many of the same issues that exist in the south of the city. Joanne Bunting talked about the relatively low number of social housing starts in the east of the city. South Belfast is not too far ahead of you, as you referenced in your statistics, and that has been a challenge in particular areas. I welcome the developments that have happened. There have been some in my constituency along McClure Street in the lower Ormeau. New homes in that development have been occupied in the past year, and it is an example of a positive and proactive development that is addressing need. <BR /> <BR />Clearly, there is a range of issues that we need to deal with.”
“I agree with lots of what has been said in the debate. As a constituency MLA who works in the south inner city, which is an area with significant social housing need and demand, I, like other MLAs, regularly deal with housing pressures and my office works hard with the Housing Executive and housing associations to try to address that real and acute need. Access to housing is a human right but also a significant challenge. It is something that the Executive need to deal with via the housing supply strategy, which we hope will come forward at some point soon — I will touch on what the Minister said yesterday — and other means that I will talk about in broader terms. <BR /> <BR />The Adjournment topic relates specifically to East Belfast but we share in broad terms a Housing Executive area.”
“On a point of order, Mr Speaker. I raise a point under Standing Orders about the allocation of debate time. The Minister responded thoroughly to Members, which is fair enough, but, by my count, he used less than half the time that had been allotted to him. I had 10 minutes in which to cover Finance Committee issues and to talk in my Opposition role. I make a genuine point about process and about making sure that we can carry out our roles, including the role of being in opposition. I will write to the Committee on Procedures and others in the hope that the situation will be improved. I genuinely think that it is a real challenge.”
“— has a below-inflation increase for waste water?”
“Minister, I add my voice to those who stand in opposition to any inappropriate, homophobic remarks. That is utterly disgusting. You have the Opposition's support in calling that out. You are doing your job as a Minister, and you can be challenged on substance but not on anything else. <BR /> <BR />Minister, it is clear that Lough Neagh is an environmental crisis and will require action on nutrients overload. That is a fact; it is not subject to debate. There must also be investment in NI Water. It is a twin-track thing. Both issues need to be dealt with. On NI Water investment, are you disappointed about and have you raised with your colleagues the fact that this year's budget —”
“Therefore, I chose to focus on that one specific area of failure. I look forward to hearing the Minister explain to me why missing his social housing target by literally thousands is good enough for the people of the North.”
“It is completely and inextricably linked to our failure to invest in our waste water infrastructure, but what does the 2025-26 Budget do? As we established, if you look at the Department for Infrastructure's budget, you see that it marginally increases investment in waste water, but that increase is below the level of inflation. That is absolutely pathetic. Frankly, it is gaslighting people. The Minister's party talks about grand plans and calls out the Government in Dublin for their failure to deliver on housing, water and investment in infrastructure, but then, when it has the power in its hands, it simply gaslights people and fails to deliver. That is what we have from the Executive and the Minister. <BR /> <BR />Had I more time, I would cover the other areas of the Budget, but I do not have it.”
“It is all guff; Ministers stand up and make promises and pledges, but, within weeks, a Minister comes to the Chamber and says, "Well, I do not have enough in my budget", so, just weeks after announcing the targets in the Programme for Government and a Budget, we are already failing at coming anywhere close to those targets. If we build 1,000 new social homes this year — that is a significant "if" — we would basically have less than two years to deliver another 5,000. That is shambolic. It is way behind the targets, and it is important that we call that out. <BR /> <BR />I have chosen one specific example. Rather than getting into the whole range of targets where there are challenges and shortfalls, I picked that one, but it is not alone.”
“His party does that all while the Budget brought to this Assembly by the Finance Minister and the Programme for Government that his colleagues signed off go nowhere near to delivering on the housing crisis. We know that, because that is literally what the Communities Minister told us on the Floor yesterday. All the PR stunts, photo opportunities and warm words that were offered by the Minister and his colleagues come to nothing when it is clear that the Executive are already missing one key target for social housing by a long way.”
“When the housing Minister comes to the Assembly and says that his budget will only facilitate the start of between 900 and 1,000 new-build social homes, that is, frankly, a shambolic situation. That is way under the trajectory that the Executive need to be on in order to complete their target for social housing starts by the end of the mandate. <BR /> <BR />We often talk in the Chamber about the housing crisis that we face. Indeed, the Minister's party talks often about the housing crisis south of the border. His party is robust and consistent in challenging the Irish Government on their failure to deliver housing, and it is right to do so. It is also robust in calling out the failure to properly invest in the infrastructure that is needed to facilitate that housing, be it waste water or energy infrastructure.”
“The anomaly relates not only to those documents but to the statement made in the Chamber yesterday by the Communities Minister. <BR /> <BR />Just a few weeks ago, the Assembly passed the 2025-26 Budget. Not long before that, the Assembly voted to approve the three-year Programme for Government. I think that I am right in saying that the Programme for Government promised that there would be just under 6,000 new social housing starts before the end of the mandate that we are in. Just weeks after the Assembly approved the Programme for Government and passed the 2025-26 Budget, the Executive are already falling catastrophically short of the targets that they set themselves.”
“While the Committee is aware that the Supply resolution debate on the Main Estimates is a largely technical exercise, it has applied an appropriate degree of scrutiny. On the basis of members' agreement at our meeting on 28 May to accelerated passage for the Budget (No. 2) Bill, the Committee for Finance supports today's Supply resolution motion. <BR /> <BR />I will now make a few remarks as leader of the Opposition. Given the fact that I am constrained because of the two roles that I hold and that Assembly Standing Orders provide that I cannot have additional time to do the jobs that the Assembly has given me — leader of the Opposition and Chair of the Finance Committee — I will limit myself to pointing out one very important anomaly that has already arisen in relation to the Programme for Government and the 2025-26 Budget.”
“<BR /> <BR />For each Department and body, the Main Estimates highlight planned expenditure for 2025-26 and provisional out-turn for 2024-25. The Committee looks forward to the publication of five-year business plans for each Department. <BR /> <BR />We know that the comprehensive spending review announcement next week will provide indicative resource budgets for the next three years and capital budgets for the next four years. That should allow the 2025-26 Budget to be the Executive's last single-year Budget for the foreseeable future. Members will see significant benefits from multi-annual Budgets, including better ability to plan and greater scrutiny of funding for grant recipients.”
“The Committee is engaging with the Department on its significant capital pressures and will continue to do so. With regard to the Department's non-ring-fenced resource DEL, the Committee has specific plans to scrutinise each of the key budget areas, with a particular focus on procurement, NI Civil Service (NICS) shared services and Land and Property Services (LPS), which are the main areas of the Department's capital spend. The Committee has taken a specific interest in the Department's contingent liabilities, which are outlined in the Main Estimates. It has liaised closely with the Department on them and will continue to do so. The Committee also notes the superannuation and other allowances that are in the Department's second request for resources.”