Finance Minister John O’Dowd has published details of a draft multi-year budget for 2026 to 2029/30. But the draft budget has not been agreed by the other main parties at Stormont, and had already come in for criticism.
A multi-year budget would allow departments to plan spending longer term, and the executive has not agreed one for more than a decade.
But the Finance Minister said that it was “simply not possible to provide any department with the funding it has requested”.
Under the draft budget for 2026/27, only four departments would see a mild increase in their budgets for next year – education, health, justice and infrastructure.
However, the figures currently do not reflect any potential overspend by departments for this year.
Health Minister Mike Nesbitt had previously said he was on course to bust his budget by up to £100m to meet the cost of pay awards for healthcare workers this year. Education Minister Paul Givan has also made clear staffing and teacher pay costs mean he will struggle to balance his budget for this year.
Proposed allocations for departments for the next three financial years:
- Department of Health: £25.9bn resource; £1.3bn capital
- Department of Education: £9.9bn resource; £1.2bn capital
- Department for Infrastructure: £2bn resource; £4bn capital
- Department of Justice: £4.6bn resource; £470m capital
- Department for Communities: £2.8bn resource; £1.3bn capital
- Department for the Economy: £2.5bn resource; £1pm capital
- Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: £2bn resource budget; £500m capital budget
- The Executive Office: £678m resource; £56m capital
- Department of Finance: £893m resource; £138m capital
Early critics of the draft budget included Deputy First Minster Emma Little-Pengelly and SDLP Opposition Leader in the Assembly, Matthew O’Toole.