O’Dowd wants £100 support payments to reach householders in NI

Stormont finance minister John O’Dowd has said it is “important” that £100 cost-of-living payments announced in the UK Budget are paid to people in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant has warned that Stormont ministers would not have the legal authority to roll out the payments in the region if they do not set a devolved budget.

The powersharing executive has still not agreed a budget for the current financial year amid a stand-off with the Treasury over the level of funding available to Northern Ireland.

Chancellor John Healey announced £100 cost-of-living payments for lower income householders in England in Wednesday’s Budget.

Devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have been allocated equivalent funding to deliver similar payments but they can technically use the money for other purposes. The Scottish and Welsh governments have signalled their intent to roll out payments.

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant speaking to the media at College Green, Westminster, after Chancellor John Healey delivered his first Budget (Jordan Pettitt/PA)

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About £87 million has been earmarked for Stormont to make energy support payments in the region.

Mr O’Dowd said he had asked his officials to examine how the money could be paid out in the absence of a local budget in Northern Ireland.

“I have asked officials to look at all details of that and examine all options in relation to how that funding could be delivered in the absence of a budget,” he told BBC Radio Ulster.

The minister also said if the money was ultimately made available to the executive, he would favour using it to make the £100 payments to hard-pressed families in the region.

“I think it’s important that we do pay it,” he said.

“We have honoured those payments before and many, many people out there are entering a very, very difficult winter.”

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.

Ministers in the devolved administration have insisted they cannot strike a budget for 2026-27 without additional financial support from Westminster.

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 insist that is not enough.

Wednesday’s Budget allocated a further £131 million of extra funding to Northern Ireland, including the £87 million for the energy support payments.

However, on Thursday, Mr O’Dowd said there still remained a “significant gap” between what the Government was offering and what the executive needed.

“There’s been a lot of spin put on this by the Secretary of State and by others around this matter,” he said.

“But the Government have refused to address this question as to why they fund Scotland and Wales significantly more than they fund here and expect taxpayers here to live with less, to expect the executive to deliver with less, and that all has an impact on our public services and our economy.”

A total of £270 million of extra funding was allocated to Northern Ireland in the Budget.

That will be spread across the current spending review period, which ends in 2029, with £131 million of it allocated for the current financial year.

The money is classified as Total Departmental Expenditure Limit (TDEL) funding – which includes both resource spending on day-to-day services and investment in capital projects.

Mr O’Dowd said when the figures are broken down, Stormont has actually lost out on £117 million for capital projects across four years.

He said this was because of the Government increasing capital spend on defence projects.