DUP lays blame for budget woes with Tories saying Northern Ireland needs 'mammoth' amount of money

​The statement from Edwin Poots came as the Northern Ireland Office asked the Province’s civil service to essentially compile a report about ways to raise revenue amid the ongoing budget squeeze, including such things as bringing in water charges.

In the absence of Stormont, the Tories set Northern Ireland’s budget themselves back in April.

In 2022/23 the budget had been £14.269bn. The 2023/24 Tory budget stands at £14.212bn – a very marginal reduction.

But MLAs have complained that with demand on the NHS growing a big extra chunk of cash is needed just to keep the Province ticking over like last year.

Mr Poots said: “Unless there is a total recalibration of how Northern Ireland is funded, the situation will only get worse.

"With or without an Executive, and with or without the Protocol, Barnett [the formula used to decide how much money to parcel out to Northern Ireland from the central treasury] will only lead to our budgetary pressures getting worse.

"Public services in Northern Ireland will stall and get to a point where it is irretrievable.

”For decades Northern Ireland’s infrastructure was in stagnation and as a result it needs mammoth investment which we cannot afford.”

Meanwhile the SDLP said blame ultimately lies with the DUP.

A statement from the party’s Stormont leader Matthew O’Toole said: “Today’s crude intervention from Chris Heaton-Harris is nothing more than a blunt attempt to make working families pay the price of the DUP’s boycott of Government.

“This region remains the most economically fragile in these islands, with high levels of deprivation and economic inactivity and low levels of disposable income.

"Of course, it is the DUP boycott which has handed the Tory Government the power to make these threats.

"There was never any justification for their boycott, but it is now beyond indefensible.”

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