There are enough guns and bombs in the world, O’Dowd tells MLAs

An increase in defence spending announced in the Chancellor’s spring statement is a “disastrous policy”, Stormont’s Finance Minister John O’Dowd has said.

Asked what he was doing to ensure that Northern Ireland businesses would benefit from the uplift in expenditure, Mr O’Dowd said there are already “enough guns and bombs out there”.

The Finance Minister faced questions at the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday about the impact of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ recent spending announcements.

DUP MLA Gary Middleton said: “The Chancellor’s spring statement outlined a significant increase in defence spending with a strong emphasis on investment in areas like AI and drone technology.

“Given Northern Ireland’s increasing and growing capabilities in these sectors, what steps are you and your department taking to ensure that Northern Ireland businesses can effectively capitalise on these increased defence expenditures?”

Mr O’Dowd said: “I am firmly of the view that there are enough rockets, missiles, bombs, guns in the world.

“We don’t need any more.

“What we need is more teachers, more nurses, more healthcare workers, more special needs assistants, more domiciliary care workers, frontline staff.

“There are enough guns and bombs out there, you only have to look at your television to tell you there are enough guns and bombs out there.

“What we need is leadership on the world stage that will bring peace to this planet.

“Usually what happens is that rich nations make the bombs, sell the bombs and then drop them on poorer nations.

“Let’s give everyone a chance and move on from what is a disastrous policy being processed and proceeded with at this time.”

Last month it was announced that the Thales factory in Belfast will supply 5,000 air defence missiles to Ukraine in a deal worth up to £1.6 billion.

Mr O’Dowd also told MLAs he had been in contact with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, to argue that investment was needed in frontline services in Northern Ireland.

He said: “What we needed to see was funding for education, health and housing.

“It is disappointing that instead of this the Chancellor’s spring statement provides the continuation of austerity, neglecting investment in public services.

“In terms of the impact on the Executive’s finances, the spring statement provided the Executive with additional Barnett consequentials of £14 million in 2025/26.

“Of this, £12.5 million is for resource DEL (department expenditure limits) and £1.6 million is for capital DEL.

“Whilst welcome, these additional funds will not meet the many significant pressures on our budgets.”

Mr O’Dowd said Communities Minister Gordon Lyons was awaiting further information on the impact for Northern Ireland of the welfare cuts announced in the spring statement.

He said: “The Executive has, rightly so, invested a significant amount of money over a number of years in litigating against the worst excesses of Tory austerity, we are now dealing with Labour austerity.

“I would be very challenged to understand how we are going to continue to mitigate against the proposed (welfare) cuts, when you see the scale of what is being proposed in the time ahead.”