Northern Ireland's budget black hole fuelled by the constant expectation of bailouts from London - Tory minister Steve Baker

That is the blunt assessment of the situation from Tory MP Steve Baker, a junior minister in the Northern Ireland Office, as the spotlight falls on how exactly the Province is going to cope with a major gap between how much money is in the public coffers, and how much is being spent.

The matter hit the headlines on Wednesday after top civil servants briefed the main political parties on the depth of the budget shortfall.

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Back in October, the Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris said there was a "£660 million in-year budget black hole" facing the Province.

The government then set a temporary budget in January for the Province, but according to reports from Wednesday’s civil service / political briefing, Stormont departments now face cuts of up to 10% to cope with the shortfall, with calls for the government to in yet again and set a new budget.

On Good Morning Ulster this morning, Mr Baker said: “We've been accused – I think shockingly – of a punishment budget.

"That of course is not the case. It is the case that we've inherited an enormous black hole and this situation needs to be resolved.

"It's also the case that it hasn't arisen overnight. It's the product of many years of financial mismanagement and also the expectation of bailouts.

"It's also the product of many years of putting off hard decisions like health reform.

"And I'm afraid this moment is one where I hope all of your listeners will say to their politicians of all political parties ‘this cannot go on – you're letting us down’.”

Asked “how long do you let the limbo continue?”, Mr Baker replied: “We said to ourselves weeks and months ago we needed to deal with this.

"That's why we've already set one budget... direct rule would be an extremely serious step and we'll try to persuade politicians to get on with the job they were elected to do.

"The Secretary of State, myself, Lord Caine, and the Prime Minister, will take a decision shortly on what will need to be done.

"But we are very clear that in the current political circumstances, to go for direct rule and have London ministers governing NI would be an extremely serious step, and it is one we're extremely reluctant to take.”

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