Stormont budget details announced amid major concerns over department shares

Stormont ministers have agreed a budget for this financial year.

Following a lengthy meeting of the Northern Ireland Executive, First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the agreed budget was “very challenging”.

Other parties agreed a spending plan for this financial year with about £14.5bn for day-to-day spending and around £1.8bn for capital spending. But Health Minister Robin Swann voted against the budget.

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So figures that have emerged show that the Department of Health gets the largest share of day-to-day funding with £7.76bn.

The next largest allocations are for the Department of Education at £2.87bn, while the Department of Justice was allocated £1.26bn.

The Department for Communities got £850m, DAERA got £577m and the Department for Infrastructure got £559m.

Reacting to the news, Health Minister Robin Swann warned the budget agreed by the powersharing Executive will cause “serious and potentially irreparable damage” to health services in Northern Ireland.

In a letter sent to health committee members, and seen by the PA news agency, Mr Swann said it would lead to an “unprecedented cash terms budget reduction”.

He added: “I believe it would result in serious and potentially irreparable damage to health and care services. Patients who rely on these services would be placed at significantly greater risk of coming to actual harm and the already intolerable pressures on staff would be multiplied.”

His letter added: “I could not stand over the implementation of cuts of this scale. I have a real fear that a service that is currently struggling in many areas could be pushed to the point of collapse in at least some areas.”

The Minister concluded: “This budget, if passed by the Assembly, will drive unplanned and potentially chaotic change from which we will struggle to recover.”

In last year’s budget, which was imposed by the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris, health received baseline spending of just over £7.3bn.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said it was disappointing that Health Minister Robin Swann had not supported the budget agreed by other Stormont ministers.

Speaking at a press conference, she said the funds the Ulster Unionist health minister had requested would have subsumed the entire budget available. She said 50% of the available budget had been given to health.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill said the new budget from the Northern Ireland Executive would provide funding for a childcare strategy.

She said: “Despite the severity of the financial challenges that are facing us we have all collectively tried to work together to make the tough choices and to demonstrate the leadership that the public rightly deserve.

“The budget itself underlines our commitment to health, in terms of prioritising health, it also invests significantly in our education services and provides funding for the childcare strategy.

“There is no doubt – and there is no escaping the fact – this was a very difficult call, a very difficult budget for us to discuss.”

Stormont Justice Minister Naomi Long has warned her department’s budget allocation will place “significant limitations” on the delivery of services.

Addressing the Assembly’s justice committee, Ms Long said she cannot overstate the impact the budget will have on her department, which has responsibility for policing, courts and prisons.

She described “inadequate funding from the Northern Ireland block grant” and said the Executive must continue to press the Treasury for more funding.

She outlined challenges to her department including a high prison population, low police officer numbers and forecasts of a 30% increase in legal aid payments.

“Realistically, we will struggle not to breach our budget limit next year,” she said.

“I think at times the understanding of what cuts to the Department of Justice budget, the impact on the community, is misunderstood, and I would say underestimated.

“We are not talking here simply here about cases taking slightly longer to go through court, we are talking about potentially catastrophic failures that could lead to life-changing experiences for people, life-ending experiences for some people.

“Keeping people safe, protecting life, preservation of public order – those are all key things that we have to be able to do and we can’t really dictate the demand in the system.

“We remain committed to innovation, we remain committed to collaborative working and to transformation, and we have some creative ideas about things we can do even within a difficult budget settlement, but ultimately the limitations that budgets will place on delivery and frontline services will be significant.”

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