Stormont ministers to hold 'urgent' meeting on budget stalemate

The Northern Ireland Executive is to hold an "urgent" meeting on Tuesday for ministers to discuss their position on the continuing absence of a Stormont budget.

No budget has been agreed by the power-sharing coalition six months into the financial year, with Stormont parties pressing the government for more funding.

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant last week instructed his officials to consider "contingency plans" after a deadline passed for ministers to consider a "final offer" of £1.5bn extra money.

Finance Minister John O'Dowd said he had asked his colleagues to hold an "urgent executive meeting so we can establish a position to go back with to the British government".

Stormont departments are facing a shortfall of up to £1.6bn, according to a spending watchdog.

With no agreed plan, public services have been operating under contingency arrangements - allowing departments to spend up to 95% of last year's funding.

Last month, Bryant made an offer of a financial package worth about £1.5bn over the next three years.

But executive parties said it did not go far enough and have argued that significant gaps remain before they can agree to a deal that would allow them to set a budget.

Speaking to BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme on Tuesday, O'Dowd said the British government "should be engaging with the executive and supporting the executive financially to deliver the services that are required for our public".

He said it would be a "huge misstep by the British government" and a "huge interference in the devolved institutions in the Good Friday Agreement" if the secretary of state were to step in to set departmental budgets in the absence of a decision from the executive.

"The executive is here to set the budget and we have, quite rightly in my opinion, have been challenging the government over lack of funding… in a bid to receive a proper funding settlement which will allow us in turn to invest and, at this stage, pay our public sector workers the pay increases they deserve," O'Dowd said.

He said he wants to be in a position, "whether through a budget or another mechanism", to provide pay increases to public sector workers.

"I am currently advised by legal advisers that in the absence of a budget I cannot authorise payment of public sector pay awards. I think that's the next challenge for the executive, to ensure that public sector pay and pay increases are delivered."

Speaking in the assembly on Monday, O'Dowd warned that without further funding there would be "damage to public services" and he reiterated his call for a "fair funding settlement".

The Sinn Féin finance minister said Stormont parties "have to remain united in our approach to the British government".

"Despite everything else that's going on, the executive is planning to meet around this matter and we will have further discussions on the way forward," he said.

He told assembly members that "when the executive meets tomorrow I will be better placed to go back to the secretary of state and set out our position".

O'Dowd was responding to an urgent question from Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) assembly member Matthew O'Toole, the leader of the official opposition.

O'Toole said it would be an "utter failure of the executive" if a budget was set from Westminster in the absence of an agreement at Stormont.

O'Dowd said he had "no intention or desire to hand any power over to the British government".

He said the prospect of the government setting a budget for Stormont "would be wholly unacceptable".

"What the British government needs to do, instead of issuing these sorts of ultimatums, is properly and fairly fund this place, and fund it in a manner to which they are funding Scotland and Wales."