Order Paper
Date: 25 November 2025
The Assembly to sit at 10.30am.
Indicative Timings for Order of Business.
1. Prayers
2. Members' Statements
3. Question Time
4. Opposition Business
Motion: The Executive's Multi-Year Budget
Proposed:
That this Assembly recognises the need for the first multi-year Budget in more than a decade, to support long-term planning, improve certainty on public service funding and public sector pay and provide clarity on infrastructure investment; acknowledges that the forthcoming Autumn Budget will impact Executive plans; notes statements by Ministers on the insufficiency of funding, and also the absence of any concrete plans by the Executive to better fund public services through existing revenue tools or new devolved fiscal powers; and calls on the Minister of Finance to bring forward a draft multi-year budget which includes options for new devolved fiscal powers and other innovative means of funding public services in Northern Ireland, which is fully aligned to the priorities outlined in the Programme for Government, before 9 December 2025.
Leader of the Opposition
Motion: Free School Meals Provision
Proposed:
That this Assembly recognises that providing free school meals in primary schools delivers multiple benefits including improved nutrition, enhanced educational attainment and long-term economic returns; notes that in Northern Ireland an estimated 20 per cent of children living in poverty are currently not eligible for free school meals; further notes that other jurisdictions across these islands are significantly expanding free school meal provision; regrets the decision to halt the School Holiday Food Grant scheme, which provided vital support to low-income families during school holidays; believes that eligibility for free school meals should be significantly expanded, with the ambition of moving to universal access over time; and calls on the Minister of Education to work with the Minister of Finance to publish a funded plan with timelines to extend free school meals to all school children by 2030.
Leader of the Opposition
Motion: Policing Resources
Proposed:
That this Assembly notes the recent report from the office of the Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland into the handling of a high profile child sex offender case, which found that the PSNI did not have the capacity or capability to manage the risk posed; expresses grave concern about the implications of these findings for the protection of children and for wider ambitions to tackle violence against women and girls; regrets that police officer numbers continue to fall, even after the restoration of the Executive; expresses concern that sufficient funding has not yet been secured to support police recruitment and workforce recovery; and calls on the Minister of Justice to set out what steps she is taking to support recruitment and retention, including measures to ensure that the PSNI better reflects the society it serves.
Leader of the Opposition
5. Adjournment
- Traffic flow in Newtownards
Miss Michelle McIlveen
