O'Dowd Responds to Treasury Budget Report
Stormont's finance minister has responded critically to a Treasury report suggesting that the executive is not implementing measures that could largely resolve its budget difficulties.
The Treasury's "open book" review of Stormont's finances was conducted following an overspend of £400 million by the executive last year.
The report concluded that ministers could have up to £3 billion more annually to allocate to public services if they adopted measures such as aligning the size of the civil service with that of the rest of the UK.
John O'Dowd challenged the Treasury's comparisons, describing them as unfair and misleading.
He described the characterisation of health spending in Northern Ireland as "simply not true".
The report stated that health spending (excluding social care) in Northern Ireland is 152% of the per capita spending in England.
O'Dowd said: "The British government's own figures show that the spend per head on health here is around 6% higher."
He also noted that the report did not acknowledge that some responsibilities carried out by the Stormont civil service in Northern Ireland fall under council jurisdiction in Great Britain.
O'Dowd further emphasized that the report failed to consider Northern Ireland's rural nature, which increases the costs of delivering public services.
He added that the report had also not considered Northern Ireland's "rurality" which makes the delivery of public services relatively more expensive.
Additionally, he criticized the report's calls for increased local revenue generation as simplistic.
"It's easy for a headline maker to say the executive could raise £3.3bn if they were to do A, B and C," he told the assembly's finance committee.
"But you have to look at the impact A, B and C would have on the wider economy."
Budget Challenges and Local Decisions
As an example, O'Dowd cited the executive's decision not to introduce water charges due to the potential impact on household finances.
Northern Ireland remains the only part of the UK where consumers are not directly charged for water services.
O'Dowd reiterated the executive's stance that Northern Ireland is underfunded compared to Wales and Scotland, and that a budget agreement is unattainable without additional funding.
Since the beginning of the financial year in April, executive departments have been operating under emergency financial procedures due to the absence of an agreed budget.
He acknowledged that a budget must eventually be agreed upon to prevent significant harm to public services but declined to specify when a "crunch point" might occur.
He said a "lack of urgency" from the Treasury was the major sticking point at the moment.
