1 May 2026
A letter giving civil servants short term cover to continue spending money in the absence of a Budget is a grave indictment of the Executive's failure to take responsibility, SDLP Leader of the Opposition Matthew O'Toole has said.
He was speaking as it emerged that the Permanent Secretary of the Finance Department had written to his counterparts in other Stormont departments giving them so-called contingency authorisation to spend money on public services in the absence of Executive agreement on a Budget.
The Executive was legally obliged to have set a Budget by 1st April, the beginning of the financial year - and so has been in breach of the law for a month.
Mr O'Toole, who also chairs the Assembly Finance Committee, said that the failure to set a Budget could end up imposing even more unnecessary pain on public services as legal spending limits for civil service authorisation are lower than would otherwise be the case.
Matthew O'Toole MLA said:
"This letter is a grave indictment of the Finance Minister and wider Executive. In failing to take responsibility for setting a Budget the Executive isn't just creating legal chaos for the civil service, they are guaranteeing that public services will suffer. In extremis, departments could be forced to impose even tighter spending settlements on departments than they have to - all a result of irresponsibility and chaos from the Executive that cannot or will not take responsibility leaving public servants to deal with their mess.
"The SDLP Opposition has always said we support any Executive efforts to secure more funding for the North, but not setting a Budget will mean public services are starved even more. The fact that John O'Dowd tried to sneak this letter out without properly informing the Assembly is a sign he knows his Executive's handling of the Budget - a Budget he published and promised would be transformative - has been unforgivably shambolic."