My speech ahead of the Final Stage: Budget (No.2) Bill scheduled for this evening - although we are already running behind about 1 hour Monday 24 June 2013 Final Stage Budget (No 2) Bill The Bill will authorise the use of £8.271 Billion from the Northern Ireland Consolidated Fund and a further £8.558 Billion for use by the Departments and other bodies . At the second stage of this Bill the Minister made the point that it can be hard to translate the figures into real world public services although it is essential that the legislation is passed so that money may be expended. He is right! And that is why we did so much work on the review of the financial process to make things easier to understand, provide direct read-across, and be more accountable to scrutiny by committees and the public at large. It is public money. Despite being approved by the Committee for Finance and Personnel, the Minister, and this House, final clearance has not been given by the Executive. We understand that the Minister of Education has withheld his agreement and therefore has a veto on progress! The Minister did tell us earlier this month that he had discussed the matter with his recalcitrant colleague but without success. Enough is enough. When will the Executive act to improve this clumsy system which we are still labouring with and which is a barrier to effective parliamentary scrutiny? Returning to the Bill, the Ulster Unionist Party will not attempt to block the Bills progress today but there are still areas of concern which need clarity. First of all we have been told by the Chair of the Maze/Longest Corporation that some £20M has been agreed to construct 2 major roads linking the new Balmoral show site to the Motorway network. Can the Minister confirm that the budget figure of £8.75M includes the road costs? With respect to the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry does the Budget have an allocation for the 2013/14 year? We are aware that welfare reform is imminent but I have not identified any provision for costs to the N.I. Assembly in the budget figures.Again I would appreciate the Ministers advice in this regard. In the financial year 2012-2013 there was an over commitment. Will the Minister advise what the actual outturn position was and the amounts carried forward under the Budget Exchange Scheme. The First and Deputy First Minister recently announced the Together: Building a United Community strategy. Whilst there has been some talk about the likely cost of it, there have not been any monies included in the Budget. I did raise this matter at the Main Estimate stage but was not favoured by a reply. I look forward to the Minister’s response in due course.
Posted on: Mon, 24 Jun 2013 15:58:53 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015