It could take a decade for funds to meet need in NI, warns report
Government and Stormont urged to look at ways to improve region’s financial framework Affairs Committee recommendations
THE Government has been urged to “look again” at how it funds Northern Ireland amid warnings that it could take a decade for funding to meet need.
A report from the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee also called for a rethink of the financial framework for the region’s police service which is currently 1,000 officers under its target level.
It comes after a recent announcement by Westminster over how Northern Ireland is funded.
Alongside the Safeguarding the Union deal agreed between the DUP and Government to tackle issues around post-brexit arrangements and restore devolved Government, a new needs-based element of funding for Northern Ireland was announced.
Northern Ireland is set to receive 124% of any equivalent increase in funding for England for the policy areas run out of Stormont, including health, policing and education.
The committee said there have been calls for this change to apply to the block grant as of 2022 as opposed to just on Barnett consequentials.
In their report the committee said it was “deeply regrettable” that the measure will “act as a fiscal ceiling”, adding that “the exact calculation and assessment of the needs-based factor” should be reviewed in negotiations between Stormont and Westminster.
In terms of the PSNI, the committee report said Government and the Stormont Executive should “rethink” the financial framework for the service to ensure it “has a greater variety of options in dealing with any financial difficulty”.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has warned of financial challenges, including the consequences around the major data leak last year.
The recently returned Stormont Executive and the Treasury remain in discussions around funding for the region.
Committee chair Sir Robert Buckland said: “It’s been two years since public funding in Northern Ireland began to dip below need, and the decline has continued since.
“The Government’s offer will fill the void eventually, it could take a decade to reach funding equal to need again.
“We urge the Executive and the UK Government to look again at the baseline and the size of the uplift as part of the Fiscal Framework negotiations that will give this deal life.”
The committee is also calling for the Stormont Executive to set out its plan for the transformation of public services and to set up a board to implement the plan.
Sir Robert added: “Alongside the right funding, another key plank to achieving sustainable finances in Northern Ireland is finally seeing through the public services transformation agenda.
“The Bengoa Report, for example, predicted the future collapse of health services in Northern Ireland eight years ago, and the changes it recommended cannot wait any longer.
“Strategic decisions to improve essential services — like health — need to be made in Stormont and we are urging politicians to make fleshing out the detail of this programme an urgent priority.
“In it lies the key to unlock the door to Northern Ireland’s prosperity and more sustainable finances.”
MORE than 48 pages and almost 20,000 words, the latest report from the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee tells us what we have all known for years: NI is all but broke and in need of significant help.
The figures in the report reveal the scale of the problem to an extent, but it is important to appreciate that behind the numbers are people.
For instance, just over 26% of the population here is on a healthcare waiting list. That’s an elderly woman living in pain until she can get a hip transplant, or someone dying while waiting for lifesaving treatment.
The latest annual budget allocation for the Department of Education is a reduction of £70m from the previous year. That has meant children going without meals because holiday hunger payments have stopped.
There has been a 22% real-terms reduction in PSNI officer numbers between 2010 and 2023. Less police means less policing. That’s scared and vulnerable victims of crime facing significant waiting times for a PSNI response.
It would have been tempting to believe that, when the Government announced a £3.3bn package to restore the Stormont institutions late last year, we would soon be well on our way to resurrecting our dire public services.
However, as the NI Affairs Committee helpfully points out, that is not the case by a long stretch.
Along with the £3.3bn package, Northern Ireland
‘The report suggests a return to multi-year budgets’