Parties set to meet Chris Heaton-Harris today at Hillsborough Castle to discuss the budgetary picture

Department allocations that are expected to result in swingeing cuts to public services are set to be laid before Parliament by Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

Mr Heaton-Harris, who has responsibility for setting the Stormont budget in the absence of devolved ministers in Belfast, is due to outline the funding plan for 2023/24 in a written ministerial statement at Westminster.

The move comes already one month into the new financial year.

Civil servants who are currently running public services in Northern Ireland are bracing themselves for a potentially brutal settlement.

When local ministers left office last year amid a political row over post-Brexit trade, Stormont was facing an approximate £600 million black hole.

Departmental permanent secretaries were forced to make a range of in-year savings and the Treasury provided a £300 million advance down-payment to help bridge the financial gap.

However, with that £300 million having to be recouped in this financial year, the picture looks even more bleak for the 2023/24 budget.

While Mr Heaton-Harris is expected to distribute the block grant among the Stormont departments, he will not be taking spending decisions needed within individual departments to ensure they balance their books.

Stormont permanent secretaries insist they should not be placed in the position of having to impose significant budget-balancing cuts, potentially impacting the most vulnerable in society.

They contend such decisions should be taken by democratically elected politicians and have urged the Government to issue ministerial directions for any major cuts that are required.

However, Mr Heaton-Harris has made clear he does not intend to issue such directions, which means the decisions will fall on the civil service until such time as powersharing returns to Stormont.

Devolution is in abeyance as a result of a DUP boycott of the institutions in protest at post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Mr Heaton-Harris is due to meet the main parties at Hillsborough Castle on Thursday to discuss the budgetary picture.

On Wednesday, Sinn Fein vice president Michelle O’Neill called on the Government to divert more money to Northern Ireland.

The DUP has urged reform of how the region is funded, arguing that the Barnett formula used to allocate Treasury money to the devolved regions is unfair.

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Former Stormont finance minster Conor Murphy has said anticipated budget cuts for Northern Ireland are “devastating, immoral and indefensible”.

“The budget proposed by the British Secretary of State (Chris Heaton-Harris) will have a devastating impact on our public services, economy and workers and families,” said the Sinn Fein MLA.

“I will make it clear in today’s meeting at Hillsborough that it will hit the most vulnerable hardest and it is immoral and indefensible.

“By exacerbating social and economic problems, the cuts will create additional pressures on the public finances and undermine public services already struggling with the effects of austerity, the impact of Brexit and the pandemic.

“This unadulterated Tory budget is the direct consequence of the absence of the Executive.

“The boycott of the Executive by the DUP is itself an act of gross political negligence which must end.

“There is an urgent onus on the two governments, the parties and not least the DUP to get the Assembly and Executive up and moving.

“The public, including schoolchildren, losing vital services and patients on waiting lists for life-saving treatments are being punished, and there is no more time for delay.”