THE STORMONT Executive must work closely with the Scottish and Welsh devolved administrations to maximise the money made available to them by the British treasury, according to the North’s Finance Minister Nigel Dodds.
This is especially vital now given the economic downturn, he said.
Mr Dodds, who is also MP for North Belfast and deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, was speaking after a meeting in London with the finance ministers from the devolved Scottish and Welsh administrations.
He underlined the importance of the administrations working together. “We have much in common. We agreed to co-operate as appropriate to deal with common issues. The UK regions can register a much stronger case by approaching the treasury in London on a collective basis,” he said.
A spokeswoman for Mr Dodds’s department said that as yet there had been no specific discussion about closer co-operation with the Irish Government over dealing with the downturn.
The economic climate and public finance issues had been discussed, and it was agreed that the three finance ministers would seek a joint meeting with the chief secretary to the treasury “as part of the ongoing quadrilateral meetings” with central government, she said.
The call comes after a series of negative announcements and predictions regarding the North’s economy. It was revealed this week that the Stormont Executive’s spending plans for the next two years are facing a shortfall of up to £1 billion (€1.06 billion), although officials from Mr Dodds’s department stressed residual money unspent by other departments could make up part of the shortfall. It was further announced on Wednesday that the North has experienced its biggest annual rise in unemployment for 37 years, adding to the financial pressures on the Executive.
A quarter of businesses in the North said they envisaged making redundancies, according to a survey published this week by Golblatt McGuigan.
The Construction Employers’ Federation warned thousands of jobs were threatened unless the Executive releases funds for building projects.
The Executive may be about to become entangled in further economic controversy as it emerged last week that the SDLP is to table an Assembly motion seeking a review of the budget and programme for government in the face of the economic downturn.
In November, the First Minister Peter Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness met British prime minister Gordon Brown in an attempt to persuade him to release more funds to the Northern Executive in the wake of the resolution of the impasse over the devolution of policing and justice powers.