Stormont budget: Demands 'three times more' than money available

The demand for departmental funding outstrips what is available many times over, a Stormont committee has heard.

Stormont ministers say they need £2bn more than the amount of funding that is available this year.

Officials for the Department of Finance were briefing assembly members on the budget for this financial year.

Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald has previously said she would like the budget to be agreed by the end of the month.

Any budget will have to be signed off by the executive.

Joanne McBurney, from the department, told the committee that they have "three times as many demands as we have funding".

Ms McBurney said there is about £1bn in funding available to be allocated to government departments for day-to-day spending.

That is how much is left over once money earmarked by the Treasury for things like welfare mitigations and farm payments are set aside.

However, she said the scale of the pressures that remain cost £3.2bn.

The picture for capital funding, which is money for big infrastructure projects like hospitals, was described as "equally challenging", with demand 1.5 times higher than the amount of money available.

There is £1.8bn to be allocated for capital projects after earmarked funding has been set aside, against £2.8m in demands.