Marshalled list of amendments

Friday 21 March 2025

Item 5: Order Paper 92/22-27 – Tuesday 25 March 2025

Motion: Tackling the Financial and Societal Impacts of Division

Proposed:

That this Assembly expresses grave concern at the cost of division in Northern Ireland, resulting in duplication of public services, additional policing and justice costs and foregone economic opportunities; notes that the cost of division was estimated to be up to £833 million per year by Ulster University’s Economic Policy Centre in 2016; believes that is an unaffordable waste of the Executive’s scarce budget and would be better invested in tackling waiting lists, building social homes, improving education provision, increasing police officer numbers and delivering other priorities shared by local communities; further believes that there should be an updated assessment of the cost of division; calls on the Minister of Finance to include a statutory duty on the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council to assess the cost of division; and further calls on the Executive to develop a cross-departmental plan to tackle the financial and societal impacts of division in Northern Ireland.

Mr Eóin Tennyson
Miss Nuala McAllister
Mr Nick Mathison
Ms Connie Egan

Amendment 1

Leave out all after ‘That this Assembly' and insert:

‘notes concern at the cost of division in Northern Ireland, including the perceived duplication of public services, additional policing and justice costs and foregone economic opportunities; further notes that the cost of division is one of a range of factors which contribute to the overall additional cost of public service delivery in Northern Ireland compared to other regions of the UK, which was estimated to be up to £833 million per year by Ulster University’s Economic Policy Centre in 2016; believes that all examples of unaffordable waste of the Executive’s scarce budget would be better invested in tackling waiting lists, building social homes, improving education provision, increasing police officer numbers and delivering other priorities shared by local communities; further believes that there should be an updated and ongoing assessment of government waste, inefficiency and our higher cost of public service delivery, including the cost of division; calls on the Minister of Finance to place the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council on a statutory footing to this end; and further calls on the Executive to develop a cross-departmental plan to tackle both the root causes, and financial and societal impacts of, division in Northern Ireland.’

[Ms Diane Forsythe]
[Mr Paul Frew]

Amendment 2 (mutually exclusive to amendment 1)

Leave out all after ‘communities;’ and insert:

‘calls on the First Minister and deputy First Minister to introduce a statutory duty to cooperate for all Executive departments to reduce the cost of division, by improving collaboration between departments and avoiding unnecessary duplication of spend; and further calls on the Minister of Finance to introduce a statutory duty on the Northern Ireland Fiscal Council to assess the cost of division across each Executive department.’

[Mr Colin McGrath]
[Mr Mark Durkan]