Bryant ‘not amenable to reality’, says McDonald as budget deadlock drags on

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant is “not amenable to rationality or reality”, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald has said as another round of talks on Stormont’s budget ended with no agreement.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said Sir Chris needs to “accept the reality” of the “gap” in Stormont’s budgetary situation as the long-running impasse around Northern Ireland’s finances continues following more unfruitful negotiations on Thursday.

The Executive has been presented with a number of conditions by the Secretary of State as the region remains without an agreed budget eight months into the current financial year.

An obligation for Stormont to raise £200 million of revenue annually is one of the conditions being put forward by Sir Chris, the Press Association understands.

UUP Health Minister Robbie Butler said one of the reasons for the ongoing stalemate is that the stipulation that there can be no overspend in departments this year “can’t be fulfilled”.

Stormont departments are currently operating on contingency budgets of 95% of last year’s spend.

The Royal College of Nursing is currently balloting for strike action because of the delayed implementation of their 2026/27 pay uplift.

Sir Chris offered the Executive a package worth more than £1.5 billion to be spent over three years, with a further £270 million in Barnett consequentials following the autumn UK Budget, in an effort to secure agreement on a budget.

The Northern Ireland Secretary came to the gates of Hillsborough urging the Sinn Féin delegation to “come on” before kissing the female politicians on both cheeks.

Speaking later on BBC Newsline, Sir Chris said that he “just wanted to get a move on” because Sinn Féin were late for the second meeting in a row.

Speaking after meeting the Secretary of State on Thursday, Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said the Executive remains “very, very significantly short of what’s required to deliver a satisfactory budget”.

She added: “This is extremely, extremely challenging, and unfortunately we are faced with the Secretary of State and a Government that is not amenable to rationality or reality.

“This is the sad position.

“We will continue to work and the one thing that we will not countenance is the kind of chaos and hardship that the closure of hospitals or schools or cancellations of appointments would cause to people out there, right across society.”

Asked about the potential obligation for revenue raising, Ms McDonald said: “To listen to the Secretary of State of the British Government, you’d imagine the people here in the North paid for nothing.

“You’d never know that you paid income tax. You’d never know that there was corporate tax receipts. You’d never know that you paid VAT.

“You’d imagine that this society was composed of lock, stock and barrel freeloaders, we know that that’s not the case.

“People do pay their way here and I would remind the British Government that even within the current arrangement of powersharing at the Assembly, the fiscal power and levers are extremely limited so, I mean, fair is fair here.

“Any colleague that’s a member of this Executive will work hard, do their very best, but they are not miracle workers and they cannot perform a sort of loaves and fishes routine. That’s simply not amenable to them.”

Sir Chris said he was frustrated by Thursday’s meetings.

Speaking on BBC Newsline, he said he has repeatedly told the Northern Ireland Executive “there is no more money” to give, but his message is not getting across.

“Well, it’s a bit frustrating, the indication that everybody gave me last week is that they were going to come along with ideas of how they could cut their cloth to meet the moment,” he said on Thursday.

“The truth is, it’s not my job to set a budget. The only people whose responsibility it is, and the only people who can set a budget, are the Northern Ireland Executive, it’s their legal responsibility and duty to do so, and yet they come back and say, ‘where’s the more money?’.

“I’m a little frustrated. I haven’t got any more money to give. I’ll say it again, there is no more money. There’s no more sofas to go around searching behind.”

He added: “They really have to take me seriously when I say there is no more money. They’ve got to set a budget. If they don’t, they can’t pay public sector workers in Northern Ireland.

“People don’t know what their budget’s going to be next year, that’s a nonsense. They don’t know whether there’ll be enough cash to pay people in February, that’s a nonsense.”

Sinn Féin vice president and Stormont First Minister Michelle O’Neill said her party is “not prepared to burden people any further with additional costs whenever they’re already getting it so hard”.

“What we want, and what our fight here is, is to say that we want fair funding for people here who pay into the system, and deserve to get proper, funded public services,” she said.

“Our public sector workers, our nurses and our teachers deserve to get their pay.

“We make political choices to help people, to get them through tough times.

“We make political choices to assist people through the cost of living.

“So, we’ll not take any lectures from Chris Bryant or anybody else in the British Treasury around how we run our finances here in the North.”

Mr Robinson said that there would not be a “balanced budget” without extra money, meaning “legal constraints will be imposed that will preclude the Executive from doing what it needs to do and what we wanted to do”.

He added: “So, there will be a fundamental choice for the Secretary of State, whether he sticks with his position, or whether he accepts the reality.”

Asked if he felt Sir Chris appreciated the severity of the financial situation in Northern Ireland, he said: “He’s been left in no doubt, I can assure you of that.

“He understands the severity of it.

“If there was a naivety associated with assuming that this would be dealt with today, then that rests with him.

“Because we’ve been very clear, as I was with you all two weeks ago, if the budget assisted in narrowing the gap, then the gap wouldn’t be insurmountable, but if he doesn’t move, there’s a gap.

“And if there’s a gap, and no more money, then there’s no balanced books, if there’s no balanced books, there’s no ability to do the things we believe this Executive needs to do, for public confidence and financial stability in Northern Ireland.”

UUP leader Jon Burrows said despite Sir Chris’s repeated public statements that there is no more money to be offered, “we can still keep working on this”.

“It depends what commitment we show in the long term. I think there’s still wriggle room from the Treasury,” he said.

“So the Alliance Party are completely defeatist on this.

“I think the other two parties are pessimistic on this, but the Ulster Unionist Party are constructively optimistic that if we keep working hard, we can get solutions.”

Referring to his party’s Department of Health, he said: “We’ve looked the Secretary of State in the eye and said, ‘Look, we’ve found half a billion pound of savings’.

“If the other Executive departments can come and show how they can replicate that, I think the Treasury (will) be more receptive.

“So I think we need to keep coming back with plans, we’re not going to give up on the people of Northern Ireland.”

Alliance leader Naomi Long, deputy leader Eóin Tennyson and Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir were also present at talks but declined to speak with media outside Hillsborough Castle.