Conor Murphy
Newry and Armagh · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“More detailed consultations with individual childcare providers and parents are taking place this month and into February. The group agreed that the research would conclude in March 2025. The work is on schedule; there has been no delay. Childcare is an excellent example of various Departments coming together to deliver for our people.”
“The Bill looks at the issue of flexible working, but at every meeting that we have had with employers, we have made a point of talking to them about the need for them to be flexible, particularly in relation to women who are returning to the workforce, and to offer people arrangements that entice them back to the workforce and give them t…”
“I welcome the opportunity to speak to the motion. <BR /> <BR />Although the Department of Education leads on childcare, it is a priority for the Executive as a whole. When setting the Budget for this financial year, the Executive earmarked an additional £25 million for childcare.”
“As a matter of fact, I publicly launched the scheme and the courses in the Met last summer. My officials are also working with our six further education colleges to develop childcare microcourses for future delivery. <BR /> <BR />I also offered to assist Minister Givan's Department as required.”
“The group identified the need to better understand the business models for childcare, what type of support is needed to ensure the sector's financial viability and how support should be targeted. Given my Department's business expertise, we volunteered to take that work forward.”
“No tensions or obstacles have been placed in the way of any of that work, and I hope that that continues to be the case, because the issues are much more important than party political exchanges across the Chamber. We will continue to work in that manner.”
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“We have had a number of engagements with the banks. About a month ago, I hosted a banking forum where we brought together the financial institutions, the credit unions, the unions and some of the business organisations, because there is a recognition that a lot of branches have been closing, particularly in small towns — two have closed in my constituency, in Crossmaglen and Keady — which has a very significant detrimental impact on the town centres. Unfortunately, the Bank of Ireland, which closed the two branches in my constituency, just announced a massive profit for this year. Undoubtedly, communities that feel left behind as a consequence of the closures will reflect ruefully on the money that has been made by the Bank of Ireland, in particular, although closing branches across the North is not unique to the Bank of Ireland.”
“However, if that is not the case, from 31 July, the Department of Finance's permanent secretary may approve the issue of cash and use of resources under section 59 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 and section 7 of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2001. Of course, neither of those allows Departments to plan effectively, nor do they provide the additional resources included in the draft Budget. <BR /> <BR />I am considering measures that may allow the Department of Health to plan on the basis that its budget will increase by the £400 million generated by the National Insurance increases. However, even if that is possible, the lack of an Executive will still mean that there will be significant funding that cannot be allocated in 2022-23. That includes some £300 million that has become available since the draft Budget was announced.”
“With your permission, a LeasCheann Comhairle, I will answer questions 10 and 14 together. <BR /> <BR />In the absence of an Executive, it will not be possible to agree a final Budget for 2022-25. However, there are mechanisms in place that will allow Departments to continue spending to maintain public services. The Vote on Account, which is included in the Budget Bill that just concluded its passage through the Assembly and is awaiting Royal Assent, will allow Departments to continue spending until the summer. <BR /> <BR />That, on its own, may provide time for a returning Executive to agree a Budget and for a Budget (No. 2) Bill to be passed.”
“IT solutions have advanced rapidly during the pandemic, which allows us to do that, and that is good for the Civil Service generally because it makes the option of working in it more open to people from rural and peripheral areas and to women to make sure that our Civil Service is more reflective of the society that it serves. We are waiting on that advice, and, as soon as we get it, we will press ahead as quickly as we can.”
“The pandemic has not gone away. A lot of people are still contracting COVID-19 and unfortunately there are still people dying from it. So we have to have a cautious approach to emerging from this, although there is a great sense that we are, at last, seeing a lot of light at the end of the tunnel. We are awaiting that advice and making sure that we adhere to it. <BR /> <BR />We have been developing policies on what a return to work looks like because the workplace, undoubtedly, will have changed. There is much more opportunity for people to have a flexible approach to work, and we need to recognise and accommodate that.”
“The Member is correct. We are waiting for the advice. At the moment, the official advice is that people should work from home if possible. As a Department, we cannot countermand that advice. I have asked the task force if it is looking at the issue, and it will discuss with the Department of Health what the latest advice might be.”
“I said in my original answer that the Connect2 hubs in Bangor and in Omagh were advancing well. The Omagh hub may not be up to the same level as the first few that we have done, but it is moving with some progress, and there has been useful engagement with Fermanagh and Omagh District Council to make sure that we get the right place. I know that there is a lot of property in Omagh that is government-owned and that a lot of it is surplus to requirements now. We want to get a place that is the right fit to make sure that it coincides with the development plans for Omagh town centre and makes a contribution to all of that. I have been informed that progress is going well there, and I hope to see more movement on the hub in the near future.”
“That is possibly why Rathgael House was chosen.”
“I am not sure why Rathgael House was chosen or whether another option was available in Bangor; I am happy to check that. As I said, the broad template is to look for an available property, discuss with the local council to make sure that it fits in and for it to be as much in the town centre as possible. Rathgael House is slightly out of the town centre. A property should be as central in a town as possible to allow people the flexibility to work a number of days a week from their own area and, perhaps, to provide a space for local government officials to meet central government officials so that we can break down some of the barriers between the strands of administration here. I am happy to see whether another property was available in Bangor town centre, but availability of government-owned property is one of the key criteria.”
“Politics is becoming very local this week for some reason”
“They will generate additional interest from people in those areas and create more opportunities in the longer term for people to apply for Civil Service jobs when travelling in and out of Belfast five days a week is not part of that job.”
“<BR /> <BR />The purpose of the hubs was to put them in town centres to make sure that they had an added benefit and were not sitting in an industrial estate but were bringing people into the town centres. They coincided with councils' development plans, so they harmonised with those. We will continue to engage. I am not certain about the time frame for that, but the sooner we get that level of engagement, the sooner we can identify sites. We have been pressing ahead with the hubs, and there are a number that are ready to open once we get the back-to-work announcement from the task force in the Department of Health. I think that they will be a success, and there is significant interest in them.”
“When we looked at the council areas that had been provided in the first run of the scheme, there was a recognition that mid-Ulster was a notable gap. We want to ensure that there is the ability to access the hubs across all the council areas. The initial programme was mapped on to the data of where people were travelling into Belfast from in order to make sure that the areas that had the highest numbers of people travelling into Belfast were dealt with. We have worked our way through that. We have a good working relationship with local government, and I am sure that we are engaging with Mid Ulster District Council to identify a suitable location so that we can work in partnership with the council to make sure that a hub fits into its economic development strategies.”
“With your permission, Mr Deputy Speaker, I will answer questions 8 and 9 together. <BR /> <BR />The hubs in Ballykelly, Downpatrick, Ballymena and Craigavon are complete and will become operational when appropriate. Progress is advancing well at the Connect2 hubs in Bangor and Omagh. Planning has started for additional hubs in the Antrim/Newtownabbey area, Derry, mid-Ulster, Enniskillen and Newry, all of which are planned to be delivered over the next two years.”
“The Department for Communities took up that option; the Department for the Economy wrote to me to say that it was not taking it up and that it would provide the certainty required. I hope that it is engaging with those groups and that they are getting some certainty. I have not heard that, but I recognise, as the Member does, that we are fast approaching that cliff edge and that they need a clear sense of how they will be funded in the next year in order to retain staff and make sure that they are there to provide those services.”
“The Member will be aware that that has been an ongoing topic of discussion for some time. I had many meetings with people in that sector. I am very aware of the cliff edge that they face and of the services that they provide to us. At a time when there are job opportunities — our economically inactive numbers have grown, but there are job opportunities out there — that is precisely the type of service that we need to focus on. I recognise the gap that exists. I also recognise that there is a hole in the Department for the Economy's budget in relation to previous funding that it relied on for such issues. <BR /> <BR />I offered a solution to the Department for Communities and the Department for the Economy to give certainty in advance to the groups involved.”
“<BR /> <BR />The tailing off and netting of budgets, particularly in relation to farm funding, will leave us significantly short over a number of years compared with the funding that the EU provided previously. The replacement of EU funding may have been written on the side of a bus; our Brexit experience, however, is that it has not materialised.”
“I do. This morning, I again raised that very point in the meeting that we had with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. The £80 million that we traditionally used, through the Department for the Economy and the Department for Communities, to target skills and assist people into employment has not been replaced at all. The groups that provided that service for us now face the prospect of trying to secure the money from the Departments' budgets, which would impact on other services that the Departments provide, or taking pot luck on the Shared Prosperity Fund, with which they might or might not be successful. That is no way for those groups to continue to provide the services that they have been providing over many years to such great effect.”
“That will enable the Department in London to draft locally specific options to be included in the upcoming Shared Prosperity Fund prospectus and investment framework. I recognise that the lack of detail on the Shared Prosperity Fund is causing significant anxiety to groups, particularly those in the voluntary and community sector. My Department and I will continue to engage with Whitehall on the fund.”
“I have been raising the matter with British Ministers for two years. The continued lack of detail on the Shared Prosperity Fund is concerning. The British Government's engagement to date on EU structural fund replacements has been wholly inadequate, with a failure to recognise the impact of the loss of approximately £80 million per annum to spending power here. <BR /> <BR />Following the receipt of legal advice, I wrote to Ministers to seek approval to share their high-level departmental priority investment options with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. I thank Ministers for their responses and confirm that their departmental information has now been shared.”
“Given that he has not only encouraged but provided public support for his friends in the DUP to shut down the Executive, denying us the right to set a multi-year Budget and allocate over £300 million to families who are struggling at this time, he has a strange sense of priorities if he is obsessing over £4·36”
“As I have said in many answers to the Member, I have reimbursed the Department for the cost incurred, which was £4·36.”
“The Department has arrangements in place for the use of official vehicles, which relate to journey costs, road and weather conditions, speed limits, parking, passengers, use of mobile phones, smoking and adhering to the provisions of the Road Traffic Order 1995, which concerns the consumption of alcohol or the use of drugs.”
“When the Executive have agreed and the Act has confirmed the targets that we face, we have to ensure that all Executive decisions play their part in meeting that direction of travel. Although I do not have the power to go into each Department and specify how it spends — our devolution arrangements allow a significant degree of autonomy in each Department, and that is part of our power-sharing framework — nonetheless, each Department is subject to the legislation. If the legislation has targets, spending decisions should reflect the desire to meet them.”
“It is unfortunate that we have not been able to get there, because the impacts of climate change will not wait until an Executive are back in place but will carry on damaging the planet as we speak. We really need to get back quickly to making those decisions.”
“As I said, funding was proposed to be set aside for that. As part of their planning, Departments would have brought forward propositions as to how they would have spent that funding, but we did not get to the stage at which that could be done in the detail that we wanted. If an Executive can be put in place quickly, I assume that we will get back to that exercise, see what Departments bid for and see how that matches the targets. It is a collective decision, however. Net zero is not any single Department's responsibility; we all have responsibility for it. The Executive have set the target, and we all have responsibility to see which projects will lead us most quickly to that area. It is clearly a collective decision.”
“As I said, we had proposed £300 million for green growth. We had also considered ring-fencing that money, but, on the advice of the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, that proposition was not taken forward. The money was available to be bid for, however, which would have formed the basis for discussions. As part of the Budget consultation, my Department releases high-level documentation; each Department would have released specific proposals relating to that, but we did not get to that position because, unfortunately, the Executive went down. The sooner that we can get back to that and see the strategies that Departments have brought forward to match the proposed funding for green growth, the better.”
“I sincerely hope that it does not. The intent has to be to get an Executive back in place as quickly as possible. Climate change is one of a range of hugely important issues that we, as a society, face. We have an ability here to take decisions and to try to allocate the limited funding that we have to things that are priorities for us in this part of the world. The essential purpose of our being here is to take those types of decisions. The way to do that is to put an Executive back in place as quickly as possible to make sure that, having finally got a three-year Budget, we are able to take advantage of it to plan and set targets for ourselves for the time ahead. The sooner an Executive are back in place to take those decisions, the better for everyone here.”
“The draft Budget allocated over £300 million for green growth. While that funding was not ring-fenced in departmental budgets, as part of the Budget consultation, Departments were encouraged to provide details of the green growth projects that they are taking forward. In the absence of an Executive, it will not be possible to agree a multi-year Budget. Therefore, any plans to finance net zero targets will have to wait until an Executive are established.”
“From my perspective, and from the legal advice that I have received, our hands are firmly tied by the fact that we, as Executive Ministers, do not have the ability to sit round the table with one another in order to plan and agree those matters and allocate the funding accordingly.”
“As the Member will be aware, in the draft Budget, I proposed to fund the cancer strategy in full. That is not possible when we do not have an Executive to agree a Budget going forward. What we have been able to do through the Vote on Account, however, is to allow the Department to go forward on an assumption of spending of about 45% as its baseline. That does not provide any additional money for all the additional things that were costed and provided for in the draft Budget, such as the cancer strategy, the mental health strategy and the elective care strategy. I am afraid that it does not allow us to deal with those issues. <BR /> <BR />We will continue to engage with Health to see what support we can get it and how we can get that support, because it is crucial that it be provided in the time ahead.”
“As the Member will know, if it comes across simply as an unhypothecated Barnett consequential, Executive approval is required to make sure that that is spent.”
“I am tempted to remind the Member again of his encouragement for us to bring down the Executive in 2017. I know that he personally was not here then, but he can check Hansard from that time to see what his party's position was on that. <BR /> <BR />I raised that issue this morning in my discussion with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury. He is fully aware that the absence of an Executive is impeding our ability to respond to the crisis in front of us. I said to him that he needs to take that into account if there are potential Barnett consequentials coming as a consequence of the spring statement and that we would need to receive those in a way that provided some possibility of their being spent. The officials undertook to go off and examine that. My officials will be in touch with them in the time ahead.”
“The quickest way to do that — I have heard various intricate solutions to all of that, none of which has borne any fruit to date — is to get back to work with one another, to sit around the table and prioritise the issues that need to be addressed, as we have done in the past, and to allocate the funding to try to provide some level of support.”
“Clearly, that is the quickest way to deal with those issues, which everybody is feeling. Every elected representative is in touch with the cost-of-living crisis in particular. The pressures brought about by that have undoubtedly begun to be felt and are increasing daily. Now that we are going into a new financial year, bills will start to fall on doormats, and people will feel an acute sense of pressure. <BR /> <BR />Of course, we do not have all the funds to deal with all the issues that we want to deal with, but we have some funding available to us, so there is an opportunity to try to provide some support to families in the time ahead.”
“As part of that, we have asked all Departments to bring forward costed schemes that they might consider. Although we do not have the ability to allocate funding to them, I want to be in a position to move very quickly on that, should an Executive be re-formed. I do not doubt that there are energy cost issues across all the Departments. Of course, the priority has to be to try to help families that are under pressure in the time ahead, but nonetheless the Department of Health has engaged with our officials, and I am sure that it will bring forward some sense of where it sees the pressures on the Department in the time ahead.”
“I have taken legal advice on this matter and written to Ministers about an approach that would allow the Department of Health to utilise the additional funding related to the increase in National Insurance contributions. It is important to say, however, that that approach will not provide the same level of funding that the draft Budget set out for the Department of Health or any other Department, and it will not offer the certainty that would have been provided by a multi-year Budget. In short, it is no substitute for an agreed Budget.”
“As I said, my latest engagement with the Treasury was this morning. I have been in touch with it on a number of occasions. This cost-of-living crisis has been gathering since the autumn. Although I very much welcome additional funding for our health system, I do not believe that the correct response was to try to take that from National Insurance contributions. We will continue to press the Treasury to take all and any measures that it can in the time ahead. I believe that it has some scope to take some measures and that it has to recognise that the crisis is deepening and the implications for people are becoming worse by the day. Therefore, the Treasury has it in its power to take some very substantial initiatives in that regard, and I hope that it takes that approach.”
“Because we have been pressing them on this for some time, and the crisis and the implications of it for families and individuals have been deepening, I hope that we will see something substantial announced on Wednesday, such as some of the measures that the Member outlined.”
“There is no doubt that the Chancellor and the Treasury have it within their gift to take measures in relation to that. They need to look at where those measures are most needed. The Member has identified people who are essential users of fuel; undoubtedly, an increase in costs reduces the income to their households. In the case of carers, it is not a very substantial income in the first place. I support any measure that can be put in place. We have been pressing the Chancellor and the Treasury to look at any and all measures they can take between now and next Wednesday.”
“I had an engagement this morning with the Chief Secretary of the Treasury, alongside the Scottish and Welsh Finance Ministers, ahead of the announcement that the Treasury and the Chancellor of the Exchequer will make on Wednesday. I hope that the British Government begin to address some of the issues that we have been pressing them on consistently, like excise duties, VAT, energy bills and the rebate on red diesel, which affects rural families, farms and small contractors. All of those issues, alongside the events in Ukraine, which are putting an even bigger squeeze on the cost of living, are creating a real sense of crisis out there. There are steps that the British Government could take immediately, and, given that we pressed them again on that this morning, I sincerely hope that we hear something substantial on Wednesday.”
“I will commit to supporting any and all efforts to ensure that the money that we have ready to support families is released. I have had no indication yet as to the success or otherwise of that particular effort. The Member will know, of course, that the clearest, most consistent and most obvious way to allow us to take decisions to spend money to support families is to re-form the Executive, sit around the table and get back to work to take those decisions. That could be done in an instant. There may be other attempts and measures to see whether we can get around these things. Although I have tried through legal means on a number of occasions to look at possible solutions, the very obvious solution is the one that is staring us in the face, and that is to re-form the Executive.”
“In conjunction with other measures, including the freezing of Housing Executive rents, that provided further help with the rising costs that families and businesses alike are facing. <BR /> <BR />An additional £300 million of funding has become available for 2022-23 since the draft Budget was agreed for consultation. Although there is no mechanism to allocate that funding in the absence of an Executive, I have asked ministerial colleagues to bring forward costed proposals on the supports that their Departments can deliver. That will allow us to move quickly once an Executive is restored. I will continue to press the British Government to take further measures, including acting on my request to waive VAT costs and excise duties for a period.”
“A number of measures have already been introduced, including a £2 million emergency fuel payment scheme and a £55 million energy payment support scheme delivered by the Department for Communities. The latter scheme is mitigating the impact of fuel price increases for some 280,000 of our most vulnerable people. <BR /> <BR />As a result of the absence of the Executive, my Budget proposals to freeze rates for three years could not be agreed. Despite that, on 2 March, I was able to announce a freeze on rates for the next 12 months. That is in addition to the extension of the small business rate relief scheme, which currently supports almost 29,000 business premises.”
“We want significant measures to be taken to assist all families who are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis. Some of that would be under the control of an Executive if it were able to take decisions. A lot of it is under the control of the Government in London, and it should take decisions in order to assist people. <BR /> <BR />The Bill is a crucial piece of draft legislation that will provide Departments with the power to continue to deliver vital front-line services to all our citizens through the remainder of this financial year and into the beginning of 2022-23. I commend the Budget Bill to the Assembly and ask Members to agree its Final Stage.”
“We would love to be in that position, and we have already provided a scheme to assist people that will pay out this week. However, there is a range of issues that are beyond our control. We continue to raise those with the Government in London, and I hope that Mr Carroll will join us in the call for assistance to be given to people. As said, if money could be found to assist people during the pandemic, why can it not be found during the cost-of-living crisis? We ask the Treasury that question, and I hope that he will join us in pressing that case. <BR /> <BR />Mr Carroll seemed to suggest that a pay lift for public-sector workers would end the cost-of-living crisis overnight. Of course, there are many people who are struggling with bills who are not in the public sector.”
“The argument that we should have left the Budget to an incoming Executive does not stack up. Their party colleagues know that, but the DUP keeps send out Members to repeat the falsehood. Those Members are faced with the inconvenient truth that the actions of their party have left us in the position where we cannot agree a Budget, make the £300 million allocations for next year to assist Departments or take forward a strategic Budget for the next three years. To try to deflect from that, the DUP continues to point out some other route or argument about the Budget that has never borne any relationship to the truth. <BR /> <BR />Mr Carroll talked about the cost-of-living crisis. Of course, the Budget that we are discussing is the Budget that concludes last year's business.”
“We also discussed the prioritisation of green growth, skills and assisting vulnerable people, but there was no disagreement that Health would be the priority. The contribution from the Member's ministerial colleagues was minimal at that meeting, considering that they now want to see much more discussion on the Budget. We only learned the Budget amount and got confirmation of the three-year time frame in late autumn. That reduced the time for a consultation on a Budget. The Budget also has to be legislated for before the end of the financial year. The whole time frame was compressed, and that is not in our gift. <BR /> <BR />The DUP, which has sent various Members out to use that script over the last number of weeks, knows all of that. The DUP knows that that is the time frame that we had.”
“In this case, the falsehood is that the Budget should not have been done in the time frame within which it was done in; legally it had to be done in the time frame within which it was done. <BR /> <BR />I will take you through the Budget process. The Member talked about there not being enough strategic discussion and planning, but last summer we started to engage with Departments on various scenarios in relation to the Budget and what it might look like. We called an Executive planning session in early autumn to have a conversation with ministerial colleagues about the possibility of a three-year Budget and where we might want to prioritise. At that time, I put forward the proposition about prioritising Health.”
“<BR /> <BR />As I said, on the basis of the in-year allocations that I made just the other day — the £45 million — I had Executive agreement that further adjustments would be made, that there would be more money available and that there would be more spending done. We had no agreement on how the £300 million would be allocated next year. Again, an Executive is required to be in place to make allocations from that funding. <BR /> <BR />Pam Cameron raised an issue that has been raised on a number of occasions by the DUP. Regardless of how often it has been answered, the DUP response seems to be straight from the Trump and Johnson approach to politics: if you are faced with an inconvenient truth but keep telling a falsehood, maybe some people will believe it.”