A Democratic Unionist attempt to have funding for North-South institutions partially withdrawn in next year's budget has failed.
During yesterday's Assembly debate on the budget, the Minister of Finance described as hypocrisy the DUP move to have the funding transferred to a warm homes scheme for the poor.
Mr Mark Durkan said the amendment put forward by the former DUP minister of social development, Mr Maurice Morrow, highlighted contradictions in the DUP policy.
"The issue of warm homes was not put forward as a proposal by the then minister for social development in the position report in June," he said. "It is clearly hypocritical for anyone now to pretend that it is their biggest priority."
The Minister said the DUP's proposed cuts in the North-South budget would decimate the EU Special Programme Fund aimed at providing support to deprived communities.
Businesses would also be seriously affected by stifling cross-Border trade, he added.
Mr Morrow claimed that around 170,000 homes suffered from lack of heating, causing up to 600 deaths each year. He said any money saved would be better spent in providing heating and possibly saving lives.
He denied that any damage would be done by taking resources from the cross-Border bodies listed in his amendment. Other members complained that not enough money was being spent on certain areas.
Mr Eamon O'Neill of the SDLP said funding for the arts and events in the North fell well short of that in the Republic.
Mr Robert McCartney, the leader of the United Kingdom Unionist Party, described the provisions of the budget as a wish list. "In cold cruel reality there is very little chance of these aspirations realised at the point of delivery," he said, adding that those who negotiated the Belfast Agreement had failed to secure adequate resources for the North.
Mr Seamus Close of the Alliance Party criticised the budget's proposals for only containing hospital waiting lists at March 2002 levels while eliminating the backlog of planning applications by the end of next year.
The DUP amendment was defeated and the budget passed.
In a separate debate, the Assembly was told the North's health service was in crisis.
Dr Joe Hendron, the chairman of the Assembly's health committee, said 18 people had died while on the waiting list for cardiac surgery last year and in many hospitals there was a waiting time of five to six days for treatment for a fracture.
The Health Minister, Ms Bairbre de Br·n, said that with the lowest health budget in western Europe the increased demands on her department were outstripping any increase in resources.