Stormont departments given funding proposals by finance minister

Stormont departments now know what their funding could look like for the next three years under a plan proposed by the finance minister.

John O’Dowd has published details of a draft multi-year budget for 2026 to 2029/30, but it has not been agreed by other parties yet.

A multi-year budget would allow departments to plan spending longer term, and the executive has not agreed one for more than a decade.

O’Dowd said it was “simply not possible to provide any department with the funding it has requested”.

Under the draft budget for 2026/27, only four departments would see a mild increase in their budgets for next year – education, health, justice and infrastructure.

• Department of Health: £25.9bn resource; £1.3bn capital
• Department of Education: £9.9bn resource; £1.2bn capital
• Department for Infrastructure: £2bn resource; £4bn capital
• Department of Justice: £4.6bn resource; £470m capital
• Department for Communities: £2.8bn resource; £1.3bn capital
• Department for the Economy: £2.5bn resource; £1pm capital
• Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: £2bn resource budget; £500m capital budget
• The Executive Office: £678m resource; £56m capital
• Department of Finance: £893m resource; £138m capital

In a written ministerial statement, O’Dowd said the multi-year budget would set aside £495m for hospital waiting lists over the next three years, as well as £24m for the special educational needs school estate.

Also included in the draft budget is an inflationary uplift of some £40m for the redevelopment of Casement Park as well as an uplift for sub-regional football stadia, also in line with inflation.

The executive had previously committed £62m towards the construction of Casement Park.

The finance minister also proposed £441m for the building of social homes, and £433m for water infrastructure.

The draft budget will now go out for an eight-week public consultation before it will need to return to the executive for approval.

The minister is also proposing to increase the regional rate by 5% year on year, which would raise an additional £250m over the next three years on top of what is already raised in revenue through the rates system.

SDLP assembly member Matthew O’Toole, leader of the opposition in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said it was an “unambitious ghost budget, bereft of vision”.

“Rather than setting out a plan to transform services and improve people’s lives, it has a few pages of text blaming others and then tables setting out essentially more status quo,” he said.

“Nowhere in this multi-year budget do I see the funding or vision needed to transform our health service, repair our wastewater infrastructure or build the housing we need.

“This is typical of a minister and executive that have no intention of taking the decisions necessary to put this place on the right path, preferring to skate along as our public services crumble around them while blaming the UK government at every turn.”