Jayne McCormackBBC News NI political correspondent
John O’Dowd said it was “simply not possible to provide any department with the funding it has requested”
Finance Minister John O’Dowd has said a draft multi-year budget he has published for 2026 to 2029/30 is “a way forward”.
A multi-year budget would allow Stormont departments to plan longer-term spending and the executive has not agreed one for more than a decade.
“The prize is a three-year budget. That three-year budget will allow us to transform our public services moving forward,” O’Dowd said.
But the plan has not been agreed by the other executive parties.
‘Eyes on the prize’
O’Dowd said he is “in listening mode” if others have alternative proposals.
“I’ll sit down with other ministers and other parties and engage in a constructive manner so we can bring forward a final budget by the first of April, because we have to keep our eye on the prize,” he said.
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.
However, the figures currently do not reflect any potential overspend by departments for this year.
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt had previously said he was on course to bust his budget by up to £100m to meet the cost of pay awards for healthcare workers this year.
Education Minister Paul Givan has also made clear staffing and teacher pay costs mean he will struggle to balance his budget for this year.
Proposed allocations for departments for the next three financial years:
Department of Health: £25.9bn resource; £1.3bn capitalDepartment of Education: £9.9bn resource; £1.2bn capitalDepartment for Infrastructure: £2bn resource; £4bn capitalDepartment of Justice: £4.6bn resource; £470m capitalDepartment for Communities: £2.8bn resource; £1.3bn capitalDepartment for the Economy: £2.5bn resource; £1pm capitalDepartment of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: £2bn resource budget; £500m capital budgetThe Executive Office: £678m resource; £56m capitalDepartment of Finance: £893m resource; £138m capital
Budget constraints for ministers
Patrick FeeBusiness correspondent, BBC News NI
This is a multi-year budget, but especially in the next financial year things are really tight and a lot of the difficult decisions will need to be taken before then.
Although the executive will see its budget increase, next year that increase is much smaller than it’s used to.
It’s up 0.8% in cash terms and Stormont had been used to somewhere in the region of 5%.
That’s why this draft budget has only four departments given a minor uplift next year – and even those departments have very little room to manoeuvre.
Looking down the line, a lot of ministers will be nervous about what their departments can deliver within those constraints.
Money set aside for waiting lists
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 £52.4m 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 for households by 5% and the regional rate for businesses by 3% year on year.
This would raise an additional £250m over the next three years on top of what is already raised in revenue through the rates system.
Will money bring pay parity for health workers?
Marie-Louise ConnollyHealth correspondent, BBC News NI
Proposing to earmark £165m each year for three years to tackle waiting lists and elective care is a first for patients in Northern Ireland as it should allow trusts to plan how they’ll staff theatres, wards and patient lists.
Overall, the Department of Health is due to get annual cash term increases of 0.8%, 1.8% and 1.9% over the next three years, but that’s not including inflation.
Health does receive the largest slice of the proposed budget, but the big question is how will the department afford pay parity for staff?
With funding only expected to go up by less than 1% next year, can health workers be confident they will be awarded a pay rise without threats of industrial action?
While many projects aren’t mentioned, the building of a specialist mother and baby unit is and that is significant.
There is no detail, but BBC News NI understands that the proposed funding allocation would allow the department to formally commit to building and opening the long-campaigned for unit in 2026/27.
Significant financial pressure on education
Robbie MeredithEducation and arts correspondent, BBC News NI
The education budget is massive, well over £3bn, and it has got about a 1% increase next year compared to this year.
But Paul Givan has put out a fairly apocalyptic statement in response to that.
He said he’ll have to make about £1bn of savings in the next couple of years if this budget goes through.
He has spelled out what that might mean: withdrawing all home-to-school transport, cutting all funding for SureStart and youth services.
He also said that, as most of the education budget goes on paying staff, you’d effectively have to make around 6,500 teachers and about 3,000 non-teaching staff redundant to make the level of savings required.
Now obviously that’s not going to happen but we can be clear that education is under significant financial pressure and that’s not going to change.
‘Bereft of vision’
PA Media
Matthew O’Toole criticised the budget plan , saying it would not transform services or improve people’s lives
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.”
‘Wasteful and unnecessary spending’
In a statement, the DUP said the draft budget “is John O’Dowd’s budget, it has not been agreed by the executive and it is not supported by the DUP”.
It added that while the party recognised the “very real financial pressures” Northern Ireland faced, “the choices and allocations set out by the Sinn Féin finance minister are deeply flawed and will require significant changes if they are to command our support”.
“The DUP will not accept a budget that fails to properly prioritise frontline services, particularly education, while wasteful and unnecessary spending continues elsewhere.”
The statement also called on the the finance minister to return with proposals that put “public services first, ensure taxpayers’ money is used efficiently, and deliver for families and communities across Northern Ireland”.
‘Serious concerns’
A spokesperson for the Alliance Party said their ministers have “serious concerns about their ability to meet their statutory obligations and fulfil Programme for Government commitments”.
The statement added that the portfolios held by Alliance MLA’s – Department of Justice and Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs – “should not suffer the consequences of waste, reckless overspending and lack of transformation from other ministers”.
“It also goes without saying that in such a challenging financial environment, Northern Ireland can no longer afford to squander hundreds of millions of pounds per year running a divided society and segregated public services,” the spokesperson continued.
“Tackling those inefficiencies would make a massive dent in the executive’s current budget shortfall.”
