Sinn Fein accused by DUP of having no plan to ease financial stress on NI people after rates discount rejected

He said around 640,000 homes were in line to benefit from a rate cut paid for by an extra £300 million given to the Province on top of the the Executive’s £24bn budget.

The DUP said the £300m was “over and above” the Executive’s budget and was not legally tied to its restoration.

With the Executive no longer functioning after DUP First Minister Paul Givan resigned last month in protest against the Northern Ireland Protocol the leaders of the parties in the regional government failed on Friday to reach an agreement on spending the extra millions.

Sinn Fein insisted the money could not be released without an Executive in place. Finance Minister Conor Murphy called on the DUP to renominate their First Minister and restore the Executive.

But Sir Jeffrey and the DUP said the £300 million was not linked to the Executive being in place but was rather a “financial annex” built separately onto the Northern Ireland Budget.

The DUP said that it was confident of the advice it received that these millions can be allocated separately from any budget approved of a finance minister in agreement with fellow ministers.

The £300m additional funds breaks down into three areas: a £50m carryover of unspent cash from the last budget, a £150m loan to be repaid to national government within five years and a £100m “consequential” payment. The latter is linked to Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s break on energy bills he distributed via English local authorities - Northern Ireland was given 3 percent of what England received.

Speaking after a meeting of the five Executive parties at Stormont, the DUP leader said: “It was confirmed that the £300m allocation is outside of the budget, is for the next financial year and £150m of it is a loan to be repaid within five years.”

He said that as well as giving a rates bill discount to around 640,000 households other departments facing cuts such as Justice could have benefited from the extra cash to pay for the soaring cost for instance of heating prisons.

“Sinn Fein has a lot of bluster but no plan,” Sir Jeffrey said, “Sinn Fein should dial down the politics and focus on solutions. They told us we couldn’t distribute football stadia funding, we have. They told us we couldn’t pass legislation. We have. They told us we would delay a Historical Abuse Inquiry apology, and we are. “

The DUP leader emphasised that he would resist demands from Sinn Fein and the other parties to re-appoint a First Minister.

“I warned the pro-Protocol parties since last September that the First Minister would be stepping down if the Protocol remained. They ignored calls from every unionist party,” he said.

Sir Jeffrey said that he was prepared to ask for help from Westminster to see if legislation could laid there to release the funds and also cut duties on petrol and diesel.

“That route has been used before but the problem is a lack of political agreement rather than a lack of a First Minister,” he added.

The five party leaders spent 90 minutes on Friday morning discussing at a virtual meeting how to allocate the £300m. They spoke with the Attorney General Brenda King as well officials from the Department of Finance.

It was the second Stormont party leaders meeting in two days which failed to find an agreement on combatting the cost-of-living crisis.

The SDLP leader Colum Attwood said they are exploring options at Stormont and Westminster to access the money in the absence of an Executive possibly though private members bills in the Commons.

There are fears within the health service and in policing over further cuts to services and jobs.

Rank and file police officers have pointed out that an incremental pay rise due to them in September has still not come into their wage slips.

Mark Lindsay, chair of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland said: “It is bad enough that these officers are not getting a justifiable, across-the-board increase to combat inflating, soaring energy, fuel and food prices but these incremental increases are now seven months overdue.”

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