Muir tells Executive colleagues it is ‘make your mind up time’ on NI budget

A Stormont minister has warned colleagues it is “make your mind up time” on Northern Ireland’s long delayed budget.

Agriculture minister Andrew Muir said the powersharing executive would need to decide “in days” whether it was going to agree a spending plan for the current financial year.

His comments came after a meeting of the Executive on Tuesday morning to discuss the ongoing budget impasse. Stormont politicians are set for talks on the stalled budget with Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant at Hillsborough Castle on Thursday.

For months, ministers in the devolved administration in Belfast have argued they cannot strike a budget for 2026-27 without additional financial support from the Treasury.

The UK Government has offered about £1.5 billion in extra funding over the next three years, with £525 million delivered this year, in an effort to assist with balancing the books, but Stormont’s leaders have insisted that is not enough.

Last week’s UK Budget allocated a further £131 million of extra funding to Northern Ireland. Of that total, £87 million was generated as a result of Chancellor John Healey’s move to offer £100 energy support payments to low-income householders in England.

While Stormont ministers have contended that a gap remains between what the Government is offering and what they believe the Executive needs, it appears local politicians will soon have to decide whether to accept the settlement and agree a budget or be left with the prospect of Sir Chris intervening to set the region’s spending plan at Westminster.

Executive departments have been operating without a budget since the beginning of the current financial year in April, and are currently only allowed to spend up to 95% of last year’s funding levels. They face the prospect of running out of money if a budget is not agreed either by the Executive or through intervention at Westminster.

Mr Muir told reporters at Stormont that Tuesday’s Executive meeting was “constructive”.

“What’s clear now is it’s make your mind up time in relation to the budget,” he said.

“This needs to be resolved by the Executive, not in weeks or months, but in days. We need to come to a final conclusion on this and need to move forward and give certainty to people who deserve proper pay, but also in terms of investment in public services. We need to get this done, and we need to get it done in the next matter of days.

Sinn Féin Economy minister Caoimhe Archibald said all efforts were focused on getting a budget agreed.

“We’ve been in negotiations with the British government for some time,” she said.

“Additional funding has been put on the table. As far as the Executive is concerned, there is still a gap there. But, ultimately, we do want to get a budget, and we do want to make sure that our public sector workers can get their pay deals. And we continue to be focused on trying to get to the point where we can get a budget agreed.

“We will be meeting again later in the week. There are further discussions to happen and all of our efforts are focused on trying to get to the point where we get a budget agreed.”