Stormont finances stabilised by Treasury write off of £560m ‘debt’ says Finance Minister John O'Dowd
Stormont is now on a more stable financial footing than when devolution returned following confirmation that a Treasury ‘debt’ of around £560 million has been written off, the finance minister has said.
A Treasury offer to set aside the £559 million was conditional on the Stormont Executive delivering a balanced budget in the last financial year.
The money had been provided by the last Conservative UK government to plug a previous hole in the executive's finances.
Finance Minister John O'Dowd told the assembly yesterday that, subject to final checks on the budget returns for 2024/25, the Treasury had confirmed the money did not have to be paid back.
Mr O'Dowd said he would not have characterised the sum as a ‘debt’ – a reference to the contention by Stormont ministers that the previous shortfall was caused by systemic underfunding of Northern Ireland by the UK government.
“Our returns show that we now have a stable budget, in the sense that we have cleared what should never have been a debt,” the minister told MLAs.
“So we are sustainable in that sense, and we've made the necessary decisions to be sustainable, but I will still make the case that this executive needs more funding for its public funding services.”
He added: “I think we are – provided we still (have) ... challenging times ahead of us – we are in a more financially stable position than we were at the restoration of the institutions.”