Cuts to front-line services inevitable without a budget - Long

The justice minister has said the only way her department can "move towards balancing the books" is to make cuts to front-line services.

The executive has failed to reach a final agreement on the draft budget which was published in January, meaning government departments started the financial year in April without being certain how much they would have to spend.

Naomi Long said she was concerned about the impact this would have on front-line services such as policing, probation, prisons and the youth justice agency.

On Wednesday, the chairman of the Police Federation of Northern Ireland said a recovery plan which aims to lift police officer numbers to 7,000 by 2028 was in "grave doubt".

Liam Kelly said the number of Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers was "supposed to grow" to 6,500 by April 2026 - the end of year one of the recovery plan.

That number currently stands at 6,315 - "35 officers less than where the original baseline was drawn in 2025," he said.

Long told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster programme that she was in the midst of a "crisis situation".

"I haven't waited for the Police Federation or the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to say it's a crisis, I have been saying it to the executive," she said.

"Without a budget, I cannot give certainty to the Chief Constable or to any other body that operates in the justice system."

Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir agreed that a budget was needed.

He said a multi-year budget would provide greater certainty than a single-year budget.

"We've got so much we want to do for the people of Northern Ireland and we're doing it within very difficult circumstances," he said.

"I need that multi-year budget, particularly for the farming community in Northern Ireland, giving certainty in terms of the support that we wish to deliver, not just in this year, but in future financial years."

He called on the UK government to provide better support which would enable the executive to set a budget.

"We've got to take difficult decisions, but the UK government also need to support us in this," he added.

There had been hope that Stormont could agree a multi-year budget in January for the first time in more than 10 years, but that did not happen.

Long said that the draft budget would have left the Department of Justice (DoJ) with a shortfall of over £100m in year one - money she said was essential for the department to "simply stand still".

She estimated that, if implemented, by year three, the draft budget would require her to make £215m of savings, which is the "entire operating budget" for the prison service, probation service, youth justice agency and forensic science service.

"That is a gap that I simply cannot fill," she added.

"There are no efficiencies that I can make after 10 years of the budget being consistently squeezed."

Long said there were "very limited opportunities for revenue raising" in the DoJ and she didn't think it was realistic to "expect the public to pay more for us to deliver less".

Overall, she said the situation was "not manageable".

"That is part of the reason why we have struggled to get an agreement on a budget, because other departments are also facing massive shortfalls."