A consultation period on the North's draft Programme for Government was launched yesterday prior to a final decision on the document in December. The accompanying budget for the next financial year, understood to total just over £6 billion, will be unveiled today by the North's Minister for Finance, Mr Mark Durkan.
The North's Deputy First Minister, Mr SΘamus Mallon, said that the Executive had made difficult decisions with limited resources. "But the crucial thing is that these decisions, difficult though they might be, are being made here by locally-elected and locally-accountable politicians."
The document demonstrated how parties and departments worked together. "The extent to which the Programme for Government is overshadowed by other disputes and problems is a measure of the failure in implementing the agreement", Mr Mallon added.
The plan contains five central priorities: health, education, community issues, securing a competitive economy and developing external relations.
Mr Mallon said that a strategy to tackle sectarian and racial intimidation was planned.
The North's acting First Minister, Sir Reg Empey, announced a £40 million allocation to improve strategic transport routes as part of the programme. "This will allow funding for completion of the existing dualling scheme of the A8 road to Larne, dualling of the Newry section of the proposed Newry-Dundalk road plus a significant contribution to the upgrading of the Westlink", he said.
Sir Reg said that the allocation from the British Treasury for Northern Ireland was finite for the next financial year. However, he emphasised that the programme reflected a substantial rise in public spending - over 3 per cent above the general rate of inflation and wage increases in the public sector.