Marshalled list of amendments

Monday 23 March 2026

Item 5 – Order Paper 160/22-27 – Monday 23 March 2026

Motion: Tackling Waste and Inefficiency in Government

Proposed:

That this Assembly recognises the need to drive efficiency and tackle wasteful spending across the public sector; notes with concern recent Northern Ireland Audit Office reports which found that delivery of major capital projects and reform of the Northern Ireland Civil Service workforce has not achieved value for money; expresses alarm at levels of spending by Executive Departments on arm’s-length bodies, agency staff, legal costs, hospitality and external consultants; criticises the use of public money to advance transgender ideology; highlights the Scottish Government’s commitment to reduce public body corporate and core government operating costs by approximately 20 per cent by 2030; calls on the Minister of Finance to agree mandatory, rolling efficiency targets for day-to-day spending by every Executive Department; and further calls on the Minister to seek Executive agreement on a presumption against the creation of new public bodies.

Ms Diane Forsythe
Mr Brian Kingston
Mr Harry Harvey

Amendment

Leave out all after ‘value for money;’ and insert:

 ‘further notes the progress that is being made to reduce the number of agency staff by bringing outsourced aspects of recruitment back into the public sector from March 2027; notes the prioritisation of internal recruitment through strategic workforce planning within the NICS People Strategy 2025-2030; further recognises that civil service reform must be thorough and avoid the flaws that underpinned previous reforms; acknowledges the need to avoid creating or maintaining public bodies which result in duplication and unnecessary bureaucracy; and calls on the Executive to agree efficiency targets for every Executive Department and to avoid the creation of new and unnecessary public bodies.’

[Mr Pat Sheehan]
[Mr Colm Gildernew]
[Mrs Sinéad Ennis]