23 June 2026
SDLP Leader of the Opposition Matthew O'Toole has accused Finance Minister John O'Dowd of displaying a shocking level of complacency about the Executive's ongoing Budget failure.
At Assembly Questions on Tuesday, Mr O'Toole challenged the Minister on the Executive's continuing failure to agree a multi-year Budget, despite the publication of what Mr O'Dowd described earlier this year as a transformational draft Budget.
It came on the same day Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald distanced herself from her own colleague’s Budget, which she said left her department “at breaking point”.
Matthew O'Toole MLA said:
"Today I asked the Finance Minister two straightforward questions. Is the transformational Budget he published in January now effectively dead, and will he admit the scale of the financial cliff-edge facing departments if no Budget is agreed? Instead of answering either question, he resorted to attacking the Opposition. That's because he doesn't have good answers to either.
"The Minister seems to think that if he talks enough about Westminster people will stop noticing that he and his Executive colleagues have failed to do their jobs. Of course Northern Ireland needs fair funding from London, and the Opposition will always support that case. But demanding more money does not relieve Ministers of their responsibility to govern.
"What was most striking today was the Minister's complacency. Community groups, councils, hospital services, holiday hunger programmes and voluntary organisations are facing real uncertainty this summer because funding decisions have not been made. Yet the Minister appeared more interested in lazy digs at the Opposition than acknowledging the gravity of the Budget crisis. The contradictions were exacerbated by his own colleague the Economy Minister disowning the Budget her colleague published and called ‘transformational’.
"People across Northern Ireland are worried about services they rely on. They deserve honesty, urgency and leadership. What they got today from the Finance Minister was deflection, excuses and a shrug of the shoulders while public services face an incredibly uncertain summer."