Owen Paterson was reported to have said last week that Gordon Brown had “written a cheque he could not cash”.
The Secretary of State Owen Paterson has said that Northern Ireland will receive the capital investment funding pledged under the St Andrews Agreement.
Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness had raised concerns that the £18bn investment pledge promised by the Labour government could be halved.
Last week, Mr Paterson was reported to have said that Gordon Brown had “written a cheque he could not cash”.
However, he said on Thursday that the government would fulfil the commitment.
He added: “Having had discussions with the treasury, we are confident that having spent £9.8bn since 2005, that by 2017-18, we will be on track for Northern Ireland to have spent £18bn.”
Economist John Simpson told the BBC that he believed a total of £14bn will have been invested by 2014-15, the end of the period covered by the Comprehensive Spending Review next week.
He added that he believed the government was then hoping that with an improved economy it would make up the rest of its commitment over the following three years.
Mr Paterson declined to say how the funding would come.
“These are the nitty gritty details that we are still negotiating over the last few days before we decide to make the announcements next week.
“But there was this bad headline that the £18bn was at stake so I would like to reassure everyone that as far as we are concerned, we are on track to spend 18 by 2017-18.”
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