Alliance and SDLP are '˜doormats of DUP and Sinn Fein' says Allister

Both the Alliance and the SDLP voted against the spending plans, which contain a raft of cuts for public services, leading some MLAs to ask why they are remaining in the Executive at all.

Among the spending decisions taken was a slight increase for healthcare.

However one former health minister said that the extra money will do little to curb the long waiting lists – suggesting the situation is now so bad in the department, that the DUP will seek to hand control of it to another party else after the May election.

When it came down to a vote at around 7pm, the DUP and Sinn Fein alone opted to back the budget, allowing it to pass 62 votes to 30.

Against them stood the Alliance, the SDLP, UUP, Green Party, TUV and independents Claire Sugden, Basil McCrea and John McCallister.

The UUP had already walked out of government in 2015.

And on Tuesday night Mr McCallister said the vote should make the SDLP and Alliance question why they still maintain seats on the Executive.

“A budget goes to the very core of being in government,” he said.

“Like being ‘half-pregnant’, you can’t be ‘half in government’.

“You cannot be in government and opposition at the same time. You either do one or the other.”

Echoing this was Jim Allister of the TUV who said they “need to realise they are just doormats of the DUP and Sinn Fein”.

“They can’t have any credibility being in the Executive whilst voting against its financial plans,” he said.

In a statement ahead of his 2016/17 budget, DUP finance minister Mervyn Storey said: “Next year’s budget will protect health, provide additional funding for public services and prepare for the future.”

He added: “It is recognised that demand for health and social care services is increasing, which puts significant pressure on services.

“The additional £133m of resource funding in the budget for the new Department of Health will help to address this.”

The overall health budget is in excess of £4.8bn.

Back in November, an additional £40m had been allocated to help with hospital waiting lists (after numerous targets were missed and the queue for outpatient appointments jumpby close to half in one year).

UUP MLA and ex-health minister Michael McGimpsey said at that time the £40m would be insufficient, and following the announcement of an extra £133m he said that “spiralling” waiting lists look set to continue.

“It looks to me like it’s still not enough to run the health service,” he said.

“Health service inflation runs at over six per cent per annum. That’s a standard number. About six to nine per cent.”

Therefore, unless something “magical” is happening, Mr McGimpsey said: “I don’t think that they’re getting enough at the moment to man the service; to stop waits building, to stop the backlog.

“It is an improvement, but it’s not going to do the business.”

The DUP has had control of health since 2011, and Mr McGimpsey believes it will not seek to have one of its MLAs appointed to the health ministry after May.

“The health service is the most rewarding department to manage, but you have to have the support of the Executrive and Assembly; in other words, you have to have an adequate budget,” he said.

“I don’t see the DUP picking health again.”