Michelle O’Neill rejects that ‘there’s no more money’ for NI in budget row

By Claudia Savage (Press Association)

First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said she does not accept Sir Chris Bryant’s claim “there’s no more money” for Northern Ireland.

The Sinn Féin vice-president said the Northern Ireland Secretary needs to “continue to engage” on the budget after he criticised the Stormont executive as having “very little financial accountability or responsibility”.

Stormont departments have been operating without a budget since the beginning of the current financial year, and are currently allowed to spend up to 95% of last year’s funding.

Ministers in the devolved powersharing Executive have insisted they cannot strike a budget for 2026/27 without additional financial support from Westminster.

The UK Government has made a financial offer slightly above £1.5 billion over the next three years in an effort to assist with balancing the budget.

Sir Chris said he has made it “absolutely clear about 17 times now, both to members of the Executive and to others, that there is no additional money beyond the £525 million we have set aside for this year”.

He also told BBC Radio Ulster’s Good Morning Ulster programme it is “irresponsible” for the Executive to “keep overspending willy-nilly”.

Speaking after a meeting with the Royal College of Nurses, the First Minister said she, and all her Executive colleagues, “wants to set a budget, but it has to be a fair budget”.

Ms O’Neill described Sir Chris’s comments as “out of touch”.

“He talks about our responsibility – my responsibility is the public sector workers here, and for a fair funding envelope that allows us actually to do public sector pay,” she said.

“(Sinn Féin Finance Minister John O’Dowd) has asked for an Executive meeting again today, we’re going to meet later on this evening, and in that discussion we’re going to talk about the budget itself, next steps.

“I don’t accept Chris Bryant’s claim that there’s no more money.

“People here are entitled to fairness. Public sector workers are entitled to get their pay. We’re going to continue this conversation with them, regardless of what he had to say about it earlier on today.”

Ms O’Neill added: “When we established the Executive back in 2024, they told us there was no more money, and we actually were able to secure additional funding for public services.

“Whenever they told us a number of months ago that there was no more money, we’ve been able to achieve an additional £1.5 billion over the next three years.

“So those are advances that we’ve secured by standing up for people here, for asserting the case that we’ve been unfairly funded for years, a position, of course, that the British Government now accept.

“The Treasury accept we’ve been underfunded, but they want us to keep agreeing to a budget that doesn’t cut it.

“They want us to keep agreeing to a budget that actually doesn’t represent fairness, given the fact that people here pay their taxes.

“So I’m not giving up on no more money. I’m not giving up, or I’m not accepting his claim today that there’s no more money.”

The First Minister said she would encourage Sir Chris “to continue to listen, to continue to engage, and to listen to the Executive that are saying – as it stands this budget does not cut it.”

Sinn Féin ministers have repeatedly pointed to Northern Ireland’s funding which is around its assessed level of need at 124%, in comparison to Scotland and Wales which are funded above their assessed level of need.

If the region was funded above that level on the same basis as Wales, it would receive about £1 billion more per year, and at the basis of Scotland, it would receive around £3 billion more.

Sinn Fein MLA Phillip McGuigan, First Minister Michelle O'Neill, Finance Minister John O'Dowd and Sinn Fein MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone Pat Cullen speaking to media after a meeting with the Royal College of Nursing Northern Ireland in Belfast. (Claudia Savage/the Press Association)