What's in Stormont's Programme for Government - and what's new and what's costed?
Northern Ireland’s draft programme for government has announced the Executive’s key missions of ‘people, planet and prosperity’ will be measured through a “wellbeing dashboard” – but the document contains no solid plans to address key issues such as hospital waiting lists, housing and police numbers.
The long awaited document admits it will not be possible to reduce our lengthy hospital waiting times with the funding currently available – but contains no plans for Stormont to make cuts or raise revenue to address the issue.
Instead, ‘efficiencies, sustainability, greater borrowing powers and fiscal devolution’ are all put on the long finger – with renewed demands for a “fair funding settlement” from the UK government.
The document says 18 times that the Executive will “make sure” that pledges are delivered – but also repeatedly says there is not enough funding. It claims that for every £1 the Executive had “to allocate for spending on day-to-day funding of public services we had three times as many demands”.
There are only two specific pledges matched by cash in Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little Pengelly’s five page foreword.
The first – £150m for an Enhanced Investment Zone – is nothing new. It was originally heralded in at the East-West Council, and is a result of the DUP’s Safeguarding the Union deal with the last government.
The first and deputy first ministers’ other specific pledge is a “£235 million Transformation Fund to make our public services better, more easily accessed, and more efficient”.
This was announced earlier this year as £234 million “ring-fenced for public sector transformation”. There will be £47 million to allocate this year.
Over 47,000 households are currently on a social housing waiting list – but there is no new cash commitment or target for builds. New frameworks and strategies are mentioned, but the only reference to how it might be paid for is that the Executive will seek approval from Treasury to allow the Housing Executive greater ability to borrow.
Despite the PSNI Chief Constable requesting his force’s officer numbers being increased to 7000, the documents only says that the Executive is “actively seeking to achieve a sufficient number of police officers in line with NDNA commitments”. The Executive pledged in 2020 to increase numbers to 7,500 – but numbers are currently at 6,300 – with only 4,500 “deployable” officers.
Again, there is no further detail on how the pledge to increase police numbers will be delivered.
On health waiting lists, the worst in the UK, ministers point to £76 million of investments approved for 2024/25 – saying that funding delivered 263,000 assessments, treatments and diagnostics last year. They say it “will not be possible to reduce our lengthy waiting times within the funding currently available” – adding that the Executive “will prepare for future investments”.
The joint message says the Executive’s priority is “your wellbeing and those close to you” – which “will be achieved by providing better support for our children and young people, enabling affordable childcare, growing our economy, increasing housing supply and tackling homelessness, taking care of everyone by improving Health and Social Care services, protecting our environment and cleaning up our water, and making our communities safer, including a particular focus on women and girls”.
The Sinn Fein and DUP leaders have also pledged “urgent reform” of public services. They say: “Rapid growth in both the cost and demand for public services is placing a huge pressure on public finances and is undermining service provision. In Our Plan, we set out how we will begin this Reform and Transformation programme underpinned by new structures, external expertise, and a £235 million Transformation Fund to make our public services better”.
The document has three ‘missions’ – people, planet and prosperity – which will guide the approach to government “both for now and the future”. They are explained as follows:
- People: Working to support everyone at all stages of their life to ensure they have the chance to succeed by improving life opportunities.
- Planet: Harnessing the potential of a green growth economy while ensuring we provide an equitable transition to a sustainable and affordable society as we take responsibility for decarbonising our economy and society.
- Prosperity: Improving our economic productivity while making sure that we have an economy that works for everyone and our story continues to be an inspiration to others.