UK Budget: Executive's failure to deliver a local budget for Northern Ireland is a 'damning indictment' - MP
The fact that the UK budget is being delivered without a local budget having been set at Stormont is a “shameful indictment”, an Alliance MP has said.
Sorcha Eastwood made the comments ahead of Chancellor John Healey setting out the first plan for the nation’s finances under the new Andy Burnham administration.
Ministers in the Northern Ireland Executive have yet to agree a local budget – and are demanding the UK government stump up more than an additional £1.5bn already on offer.
Last week, DUP leader Gavin Robinson welcomed what he called a “sense of realism” from the government, implying that the issue could be solved when Mr Healey set out his plans.
Stormont finance minister John O’Dowd has said Chancellor John Healey’s Budget is “crucial and critical” to the power-sharing Executive amid the ongoing budget stalemate.
Lagan Valley MP Sorcha Eastwood has said that it is “a shameful indictment that the people of Northern Ireland are without a budget during a cost-of-living crisis”.
She added: “Having no budget is putting our public services on the brink, at a time when life is becoming increasingly unaffordable, and businesses are struggling to survive.
“For too many businesses and families, there is no more room for manoeuvre. Increasing costs are pricing people out of a good quality of life and they are crying out for hope. We need to see a budget of ambition and practical solutions that provide support to make life more affordable in every postcode.
“Given that the Prime Minister has regularly spoken about his ambition of delivering economic growth in every postcode, there is a clear opportunity with this budget to make progress on that agenda.
“That must include tackling the cost of doing business crisis, incentivising economic growth and supporting our local businesses to thrive”.
Speaking ahead of the Budget being announced, Northern Ireland’s finance minister John O’Dowd said ministers need to see “a fair and sustainable settlement”.
“The money currently on the table is not sufficient for us to be able to move forward, pay our public sector workers, teachers and nurses etc, and sustain public services and grow our economy,” he said.
“So I await the Chancellor’s announcements, and I hope that he does now meet the needs of this society and indeed across these islands”.