How Stormont departments are allocated budgets must change – Paul Givan

How Stormont departments are allocated their budgets should “fundamentally change”, Education Minister Paul Givan has argued.

He was speaking as severe financial pressures on the Northern Ireland Executive, particularly in delivering public services, have been highlighted.

Mr Givan said if public sector pay commitments are to be met, that should be the starting point on how money is allocated to departments.

“My department is 82% staff pay, other departments that only accounts for around 30%, so fundamentally how we approach the budget is a flawed process and we need to now start a new way of allocating funds to each department,” he told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme.

“I think we need to look at how we actually start the process of allocating funding, it can’t just be, last year department x spent the following, this year we’ll top it up by another 5%.

“We need to look at the basis upon which we allocate funding. I think it should be based on contractual inescapable pressures, and pay is very much one of those things.”

Mr Givan also argued for closer engagement with the Treasury, referencing an additional £400 million which was made available to Stormont to support public services in the form of a reserve claim to be repaid over three years.

“I fully accept that collectively as an Executive, we’re all facing difficulties within our departments, that’s why opening our books up to the Treasury, allowing that detailed examination, and we need to get a longer-term arrangement with the Treasury to enable us to have that transformation,” he said.

“I have published a sustainability budget plan with clear proposals in it, we need the Treasury to help enable us to do that.”

Mr Givan argued the current approach to the education system is not sustainable either financially or in terms of outcomes for pupils.

Last month he published a five-year budget strategy which included proposals such as reducing the number of schools in the region and reshaping special educational needs (Sen) support in mainstream schools.

“There are difficult decisions for this Executive to take, we do need to ensure that every pound is being effectively spent, and I couldn’t say honestly that every single pound is being effectively spent in education, but there are wider pressures, we do need more funding, but it is my job to make sure that what we do have is spent effectively,” he said.

“There is a declining birth rate, when we look at the next 10 years enrolments will reduce by 13%, so it’s not sustainable for a school where there are already small numbers of pupils, for them to remain open.”