'Very severe recession' looming post pandemic, warns Finance Minister

Speaking in BBC, Mr Murphy said he recognises that "inevitably we will have damage, inevitably businesses will suffer and jobs may go",.

But, he believes the executive's actions to support businesses will help "mitigate against that as best as we possibly can".

Speaking on Good Morning Ulster, the minister says Stormont was already facing challenges such as the effects of Brexit and "the years of austerity budgets" before the lockdown actions which shut down many parts of the economy in March.

"What we were doing was trying to support businesses meet those challenges, but now we've got involved in probably an even more serious one in terms of the outworking of this pandemic," Mr Murphy says.

"The executive when it reformed in January was going to face a very challenging time politically, economically, in terms of support for public services because of the years of austerity budgets, but that's all been greatly increased because of the situation we are facing at the moment."