Government confirms £2bn for NI with ‘stringent conditions’

In a statement on yesterday evening the Government revealed an extra £1 billion on top of the £1 billion which Northern Ireland would expect under the Barnett Formula.

The funding will be accompanied by “stringent conditions” to ensure a “greater level of accountability for public spending” and ensure the new Executive is building sustainable public services, according to the statement.

A new UK Government-Northern Ireland Executive joint board will be established, convened by the Northern Ireland Secretary Julian Smith to oversee implementation.

Mr Smith said the money will end the ongoing pay dispute by health workers as well as transform public services.

“New Decade, New Approach is about putting Northern Ireland’s Assembly on a sustainable footing,” he said.

“This funding provides certainty to the Executive and ensures much-needed reforms across health, education and justice can be delivered.”

Of the £2bn, £1bn was described as a Barnett Formula-based investment guarantee from the UK Government. Of the remaining total, there will be an injection of £550 million to the NI Executive, which includes £200 million to resolve the nurses’ pay dispute immediately and deliver pay parity over the next two years.

£60 million of capital and resource funding will be ringfenced to deliver a NI Graduate Entry Medical School in Londonderry, subject to Executive approval, with £45 million provided by the Inclusive Future Fund announced in May 2019.

£50 million over two years will be provided to support the rollout of ultra-low emission public transport and around £245 million will support the transformation of public services.

There is also £140 million to address what was termed as “Northern Ireland’s unique circumstances”.

Earlier, Northern Ireland’s first and deputy first ministers wrote to Boris Johnson claiming the financial proposal around the deal to restore Stormont is not adequate.

Civil servants in Belfast are preparing detailed costings for pledges the British and Irish governments made in the agreement restoring the devolved institutions, Stormont finance minister Conor Murphy said.

Mr Murphy said: “The first and deputy first minister wrote to the Prime Minister yesterday to tell him that we are doing a piece of work, a more detailed piece of work through my department, costing the commitments that the two governments made in the document that they produced last week.

Mr Murphy visited the Casement Park sports ground in west Belfast and said the deal to restore the Executive includes an intention to complete planned stadia programmes.

The construction of a new stadium at Casement was badly delayed by safety concerns and objections from residents – and the project has an overspend of £33 million, a recent Audit Office report said.