North’s business lobby warns of funding shortfall

The North’s business community has a “very real fear” that if Northern Ireland continues to divert funds to deal with its health crisis then there will be “no public money left to support the wider economy”, a senior industry leader has warned.

Angela McGowan, Northern Ireland director of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), which represents some of the North’s largest employers, said investment was urgently required across key areas, including skills and economic development programmes, and not just in health.

Northern Ireland’s is facing extreme budget pressures which was underlined on Monday when the North’s Department of Finance took what it described as the “unusual step” of publishing a budget briefing document for 2018-19 and 2019-20 .

The department’s permanent secretary Hugh Widdis said in normal circumstances the Northern Ireland Minister of Finance would have presented a draft budget to the executive for agreement and later approval, after debate, by the Assembly.

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However, because there was no executive in place the Department of Finance had been forced to step in and explain what choices were currently available for “balancing the budget” next year.

Mr Widdis has warned that budgets for 2018/19 and 2019/20 “will need to take account of constrained financial resources and growing departmental pressures”.

Stark choices

The budget briefing paper highlights that there are primarily three stark choices; cut departmental budgets, reduce or stop support for existing public services or ask people in the North to pay more towards the budget by increasing household rates or introducing new charges in areas such as health and education.

Business leaders have welcomed the move by the Department of Finance, but Construction Employers Federation managing director John Armstrong said it also clearly detailed the challenges facing the North.

“Decisions need to be prioritised and taken, and a clear and accountable way of government taking these decisions needs to be established. Our preference is, of course, the establishment of a Northern Ireland executive. However, failing that we need to move to a position where the functions of government can be exercised in a way that any other part of these islands would expect as a matter of course.”