Question Time: Finance and Personnel Tuesday 09 June 2015
Minister for
Finance and Personnel, Arlene Foster, was asked about the upcoming Budget
during today’s Question Time. There was unease in the chamber given the
question marks over the Budget created by the uncertainty over welfare reform
and what it means for the Stormont House Agreement. Mrs Foster maintained “the
Budget that I am bringing forward is a Budget that is based on the full
implementation of the Stormont House Agreement. Therefore, the people who are
not standing by the Stormont House Agreement have to look at themselves and ask
themselves why they are not standing by their commitments in the Stormont House
Agreement. To do otherwise will cause grave difficulties to public services in
Northern Ireland.” Jim Allister enquired if the Minister has met with the
Treasury, concerned that a Budget with a “£604m black hole” cannot be set
without putting us on a course for breaching Treasury constraints. The Minister
affirmed that she intends to meet with the Treasury as soon as possible adding “as
to breaching our controls, I am bringing the Budget forward on the premise that
the whole of the Stormont House Agreement will be implemented: not parts of it,
but all of it. If all of it comes to fruition, the Budget will not have a hole
of £604 million.”
The Minister
was also asked for an update on the Voluntary Exit Scheme process. Many members
expressed concern for the funding of the scheme given the uncertainty around
welfare reform, the Stormont House Agreement and the consequent budget. Mrs
Foster explained “the voluntary exit scheme and the £700 million required to
fund it are key elements of the Stormont House Agreement, so, at present, we
are unable to access that funding. That has significant implications for the
Executive’s Budget, the budgets of public-sector bodies and, importantly, the
individuals affected.” The situation is complicated further as Departments have
factored pay bill savings they would make from the scheme in their budgets. The
Minister warned that failure to fully implement the Stormont House Agreement
would result in the loss of the £700m required for the Voluntary Exit Scheme,
£150m for organisations dealing with the past, £500m over 10 years for shared
and integrated education and flexibilities arranged in relation to the £100m
loan obtained in 2014-15. There would also be the additional pressure of the
£114m yearly cost of not implementing welfare reform.
Mrs Foster
also answered Members queries on rates revaluation, cooperation with the
Scottish Government, the Social Innovation Fund and Northern Ireland’s
composite economic index.
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