- Written by Jayne McCormack
- BBC News NI Political Correspondent
image source, PA/Liam McBurney
Speaker of Parliament Edwin Poots (left) greets Chancellor Rishi Sunak and NI Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris at Parliament House in Belfast.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak is visiting Stormont to mark the return of power-sharing in Northern Ireland.
He is scheduled to hold bilateral talks with Taoiseach Leo Varadkar (Prime Minister of Ireland).
They will also meet with Northern Ireland’s political leaders, including First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengery.
This comes after the Northern Ireland Executive, which is made up of policy and decision-making ministers, wrote to Mr Sunak asking for urgent talks on long-term funding stability for public services. That’s what it means.
Power-sharing has returned after the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) ended its boycott over post-Brexit trade rules.
The DUP agreed to re-enter the body after reaching a deal with Sunak’s government, which included passing new legislation at Westminster.
Mr Sunak had hoped to restore a power-sharing government last April, but has been forced to hold back.
Today he will be visiting Stormont for the first time with an Irish colleague who has visited many times before.
What did the letter to Rishi Sunak say?
On Sunday, Mr Sunak described the package as a “generous and fair settlement for Northern Ireland”.
But in a letter to the prime minister, the executive said the extra funding “only provides a short-term solution to the pressing problems we currently face”.
image source, Mark Marlowe/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Nurses, teachers, transport workers and civil servants took part in large-scale strike action in January
Mr O’Neill said there needed to be a change in the way Northern Ireland was funded, adding that he would “strongly press that point” to Mr Sunak.
Although she has a different title, Deputy Prime Minister Emma Little-Pengery, who co-leads the Prime Minister’s executive leadership, said she would work to ensure the government “provides sufficient funding in the package to deliver on its public sector pay commitments”. added.
The letter called for new funding models that provide “long-term sustainability”, adding that this can only be achieved “through joint efforts and implementation by both governments and public authorities.”
DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson (who holds no seat as an MLA as he holds a Westminster seat) said on Monday morning that he would speak to the Prime Minister about Northern Ireland’s finances.
He said he would be “unapologetic” in these discussions.
“Funding for Northern Ireland is below the level it needs,” Sir Jeffrey said.
“The government needs to make a little more progress to get our country’s fiscal health back on track.”
But Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Heaton Harris told BBC Breakfast that the funding package was “fair and generous”.
“The Northern Ireland Fiscal Council said in its report last May that it was adequately funded and this £3.3 billion would be on top of that,” he said.
In this letter, the new executive effectively states that unless the fiscal policy announced before Christmas is amended, it is almost certain to cause a new financial crisis at Stormont.
Ministers therefore want to resume negotiations on key elements, especially the “fiscal floor”.
This was based on the decentralized funding model in Wales, which recognized that demographic differences made service delivery more costly in Wales than in England.
The Government has agreed to fund Wales at a level of 115% of that of England. In other words, for every £100 per person spent on public services in England, more than £115 per person should be paid in Wales.
The Government has accepted a similar model in Northern Ireland, setting per capita funding at 124% of England’s level.
Stormont ministers say this is too low and has not been the subject of any robust independent assessment or analysis.
They believe the starting point should be 127%, with the potential for further increases.
This difference may sound small, but over time it will require billions of pounds of additional funding.
Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster, Mr Heaton-Harris questioned whether civil servants were wrong about the 127% figure, adding: “They have been wrong in the past.”
The Secretary of State added: “Everything we do in terms of public sector funding has to be based on facts and figures, not theory, so I’m sure there will be a lot of discussion on this basis. But that’s how I want to think about it.” They will be numbers based on facts.
“There is significant funding for public sector pay, but it is dependent on negotiations by local ministers, and we hope there will be significant new funding and that it will be spent on transforming public services.The UK Government Funds from previously pledged but unspent funds will be put into that transformation pot.”
image source, brian lawless
Prime Minister Leo Varadkar will visit Stormont, meet ministers and meet Rishi Sunak
What’s on Monday’s agenda?
Mr Sunak will visit Parliament House in Stormont, the seat of parliament, to meet party leaders and new ministers from the re-established executive.
This will be the Prime Minister’s seventh visit to Northern Ireland since he came in 10th place.
His two-day trip also includes meetings with local representatives and talks with Taoists.
Mr Downing Street said his trip to Stormont on Monday would also include talks with “a wide range of people across Northern Ireland, including those who provide public services, the people they support and their families”.
how did we get here?
The return to power-sharing came after months of negotiations involving the government and Northern Ireland’s largest union party, the DUP.
Britain withdrew from power-sharing in February 2022 in protest of the post-Brexit Northern Ireland trade deal agreed between the UK and the EU.
Last week, DUP leader Sir Geoffrey Donaldson announced that an agreement had been reached with Number 10 which meant there would be no “routine” checks on goods crossing from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
On this basis, he said his party would return to power if Westminster passes legislation to implement further reforms.
The decision culminated in the restoration of power-sharing institutions on Saturday, two years after the DUP withdrew from the executive.