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While money isn’t the root of all Stormont’s woes, the dearth of finances certainly plays a major role in destabilising this already fractious administration.
There’s finite funding to go around and all minister’s are expected to tighten their belts, however, cuts in some departments, such as health and education, are much less palatable to the public than others.
John O’Dowd has ostensibly sought to do the right thing in trying to formulate a multi-year budget that’ll set targets for day-to-day spending up to the beginning of April 2029 and for capital spending over the next four years.
For more than a decade, when the institutions have been operational, Executive ministers have lived hand-to-mouth, with their officials unable to plan strategically. There’s consensus around the table at least that a multi-year budget is preferable to 12-month, emergency spending plans but getting agreement on anything long-term proves more problematic.
The Sinn Féin finance minister, who last month told a Stormont scrutiny committee he was confident a multi-year budget would be agreed before year end, is understood to have circulated a paper on his proposals before Christmas and asked his ministerial colleagues for their feedback.
While there’d been hope of Executive sign-off for the draft multi-year budget, Mr O’Dowd has instead chose to act unilaterally and launch an eight-week consultation on his plans, which effectively divvies up a block grant that is reducing year-on-year in real terms.
The reaction from the DUP was immediate, with a party statement describing the minister’s proposals as “deeply flawed”.
The statement accused Mr O’Dowd of failing to properly prioritise frontline services, particularly education, while pointing to unspecified “wasteful and unnecessary spending”.
Education Minister Paul Givan, who’s already in the red going into the next financial year, went further in an extensive statement in which he said cuts to his department’s budget of almost £3bn over three years were “simply not achievable”.
Alliance and the Ulster Unionists too were critical of the finance minister’s plan, also citing waste and a failure to transform public services.
While highlighting the need for Stormont to raise revenue, notably none of the parties’ statements pointed to specific areas where cuts could or should be made.
On the face of things, its appears Mr O’Dowd is disregarding his colleagues. However, he can only get so far on his own.
The consultation that he’s launched will inevitably feed into the negotiation which will have to take place if this budget is ever to be signed off, though the March 3 closing date leaves little time for the parties to agree a long-term spending plan, meaning they may be forced to approve yet another one-year budget.
There has certainly been a lot of noise in response to the minister’s proposals at a time when little else is happening politically but don’t necessarily regard all the criticism as ill-feeling, perhaps it’s more like ministers doing their negotiating in public.
One thing is clear, however, unless something drastic happens, our public services will continue to deteriorate, whether it be crumbling infrastructure or completely demoralised staff.
There are solutions worth considering but with the exception of the Alliance Party, which in the past has advocated for the introduction of water charges, none of those around the Executive table has shown the courage or determination to break out of the current precarious cycle.
It seems our politicians want power but without the responsibility.
