Health and education set to get biggest share of Stormont budget

The Northern Ireland Executive has agreed to release for public consultation its draft budget for the 2025/26 financial year.

Under the proposals, the health and education departments would receive most of the £19bn budget allocation.

The spending plan involves around £16bn for day-to-day spending and £2bn for capital spending.

Ministers in Stormont's four-party devolved government met to discuss the plans on Thursday.

It is understood the draft budget allocations 2025/26 for each Stormont executive department are as follows:

• Health: £8,793m
• Education: £3,600m
• Infrastructure: £1,566m
• Justice: £1,506m
• Communities: £1,248m
• Economy: £1,007m
• Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: £716m
• Finance: £271m
• Executive Office: £253m

The figures are made up of both day-to-day spending and money allocated for investment, known as capital spending.

Speaking at a news conference on Thursday, First Minister Michelle O'Neill said funding had been proposed for tackling violence against women and girls.

"This draft budget reflects our programme for government commitments to doing what matters most and to tackle the issues facing working families and communities here," she said.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly said the draft budget included a doubling of funding for a childcare strategy to £50m.

She also said the executive had agreed to "ringfence" funding for agriculture, the environment and rural development.

"The fiscal environment still remains challenging, but I do believe we are making a significant difference," Little Pengelly said.

Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald highlighted £100m capital funding for housing and more than £105m for Northern Ireland Water and wastewater infrastructure.

She said she hoped it would be the last one-year budget and that the Stormont executive would be able to move towards multi-year budgets in future.

"Collectively we have worked together to allocate resources to where they are needed most, and in line with the executives priorities," she said.

"It supports our commitment to deliver affordable child care, focusses the energy of our economy by investing in skills, and supports our farming community and agriculture industry."

Over half of the day-to-day funding will be allocated to health under the draft budget proposals.

Archibald said the plans would give an 8.3% uplift on the previous year's health budget.

Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said there was "room for improvement" in the executive's draft budget.

He said it was a "very challenging allocation" but he was accepting the challenge.

Speaking after the executive meeting, Nesbitt said: "I think every executive minster is under pressure in terms of their budgets and the finance minister was left with an impossible challenge in terms of meeting what everybody wanted.

"I made no objection to the draft budget going out to consultation, but what I do object to is the disconnect between the budget and the programme for government."

He added: "In the programme for government waiting lists are one of the nine priorities, but if you go to the draft budget, there isn't a single mention of waiting lists and therefore not a single penny for tackling those lists."

It is understood Archibald provided executive colleagues with details of their proposed allocations earlier this week.

Earlier, she said she was "hopeful" of progress being made so that the budget can go out for public consultation, before being passed by the Assembly.

Ministers have already been warned of a "challenging" financial context, added the minister.

"I have worked hard with my executive colleagues over the past number of weeks to progress the budget," she said.

"We as an executive have a set of priorities in terms of our programme for government commitments that we want to deliver on, and so I've been working with my executive colleagues to make progress."