Written Ministerial Statement

The content of this written ministerial statement is as received at the time from the Minister. It has not been subject to the official reporting (Hansard) process.

Department Of Finance - Public Expenditure: 2025-26 Further Allocations

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Published at 12:00 pm on Friday 6 February 2026 

Mr O’Dowd (The Minister of Finance): I wish to update Members on the Executive’s agreement to further allocations in 2025-26.

Following December Monitoring, the January In-Year Technical Exercise was commissioned to allow departments to provide details of additional easements identified since December Monitoring and to process technical adjustments.

Departments were also asked to confirm whether they could utilise any further capital funding, in order to help reduce the risk of capital underspend exceeding the amount that can be carried forward to 2026-27 through the Budget Exchange Scheme.

Funding Available

The funding being allocated is as a result of additional Barnett consequentials and reduced requirements from departments.

The Treasury has provided additional Barnett consequentials of £13.4 million Resource DEL and £15.6 million Capital DEL, along with a reduction of £3.4 million in Financial Transactions Capital (FTC).

Departments declared reduced requirements of £10.5 million Resource DEL and £16.8 million Capital DEL. Of these, £0.1million Resource DEL and £2.7 million Capital DEL relate to Treasury-earmarked funding and are therefore not available for reallocation.

Full details of the reduced requirements are provided in the tablesaccompanying this statement.

Taking account of Barnett consequentials, reduced requirements, a Treasury cash management rebate, and an increase in forecast regional rate income, the Executive had £25.2 million Resource DEL and £29.7 million Capital DEL available for allocation.

Further Allocations

Resource DEL

At December Monitoring, I committed that if any further Barnett consequentials became available, I would move quickly to allocate these towards public sector pay pressures.

As an Executive we remain fully committed to supporting public sector pay. We have therefore agreed to allocate £25 million in additional resource funding towards meeting health service and teacher pay costs.

The Department of Health will receive £18.3 million for health service pay costs.

The Department of Education will receive £6.8 million for teachers’ pay costs.

The NI Authority for Utility Regulation will receive £0.2 million to meet an IT assist charge pressure that cannot be funded from license fee income.

Capital DEL

The Department for Infrastructure will receive a general allocation of £16.8 million to meet a range of pressures including Translink, water, and local transport safety measures. This includes vital funding towards fixing our road network.

The Department for Communities will receive £6.5 million for Disabled Adaptations. This funding will help people with disabilities adapt their homes ensuring their living spaces truly meet their needs and support greater independence.

Recognising the pressures facing education, the Department of Education will receive £6.4 million of funding for general capital pressures.

Ring-fenced Resource DEL

The Treasury has also provided sufficient Ring-fenced Resource DEL to meet in full the bids submitted by departments in December Monitoring.

Details of all allocations are provided in the tables provided with this statement.

Technical Adjustments

To support transparency, this statement is accompanied by tables setting out the adjustments to departmental budgets, including technical adjustments. Technical adjustments include budget cover transfers with Whitehall departments, Treasury earmarked funding for private schools VAT compensation, and Treasury funding for Student Loan impairments costs.

Conclusion

While additional funding from Barnett consequentials is welcome it is nowhere on the scale required to meet the challenges facing departments. Our public finances remain extremely constrained this year and going into next year.

I remain committed to working in partnership with my Ministerial colleagues to find a way forward on the multi-year budget.

Index of Tables

Table 1: Reduced Requirements

Table 2: Allocations

Table 3: Departmental Outcome – Resource DEL

Table 4: Departmental Outcome – Capital DEL

Table 5: Departmental Outcome – Ring-fenced Resource DEL including Student Loans Impairment

Table 1: Reduced Requirements

(£millions)

Totals may not add due to rounding

¹ Treasury earmarked funding

Table 2: Allocations

(£millions)

Totals may not add due to rounding

Table 3: Departmental Outcome – Resource DEL

(£millions)

Totals may not add due to rounding

Table 4: Departmental Outcome – Capital DEL

(£millions)

Totals may not add due to rounding

£0.0m represents amounts of less than £50k

Table 5: Departmental Outcome – Ring-fenced Resource DEL including Student Loans impairment

(£millions)

Totals may not add due to rounding

£0.0m represents amounts of less than £50k