Angry exchanges over budget plan

finance minister sammy wilsonFinance Minister Sammy Wilson gave the document to ministers
Related Stories

A final budget package is to be presented to a special session of the Assembly later.

Executive ministers agreed the budget on Thursday night, although UUP and SDLP ministers voted against it.

It is understood an extra £120m has been allocated to health over the next four years, and £150m extra to education.

The Employment and Learning Department, which is responsible for higher education, is due to get an extra £50m.

However, £70m is being cut from the Social Development Department.

Friday’s session of the Assembly will allow Finance Minister Sammy Wilson to outline the final adjustments to his budget and answer some questions from MLAs.

However, the budget package will not be put to a formal vote until next week.

Some of the exchanges across the Executive table on Thursday night were said to be ill tempered and brutally frank and gave an idea of how the battle lines in the Assembly chamber will be drawn.

The Finance Department has said it has identified more than £450m in extra money to distribute to the Executive departments.

Finance Minister Sammy Wilson said that the new cash is available partly because the Land and Property Service has improved its efficiency in gathering the rates.

Senior Executive sources claim the new cash takes the total of additional revenue generated under the budget to more than £1bn.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *