Ministers made ‘unwise’ spending decisions before leaving office – Baker

Stormont ministers have been accused of making “unwise” spending decisions before they left office by a Northern Ireland Office minister.

Steve Baker said there would be no bail-out from the Treasury for Northern Ireland departments facing an overspend, but said dealing with it would involve “difficult choices”.

However, Mr Baker also said he hoped the Stormont powersharing institutions would be restored in time to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement next year.

The latest Department of Finance data indicates that Stormont departments are set to overspend by £650 million (almost 5%) on the day-to-day costs of running public services and by £187 million (over 10%) on capital investment projects.

With no ministers in place due to the political deadlock over the Northern Ireland Protocol, Secretary of State Chris Heaton-Harris is set to step in to pass a budget for Stormont at Westminster next week.

While Chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced an extra £650m for Northern Ireland as part of his autumn statement, Mr Baker said this would not be frontloaded to tackle the current overspend.

He told the BBC Evening Extra programme: “What we have to do this year is make sure there isn’t an overspend and the Treasury have been very clear, there isn’t a bail-out this year.

“I am afraid there has been some spending made by MLAs before they departed which I’m afraid I could only really describe as unwise, if not worse.

“We are now going to have to deal with that overspending.

“We will bring forward plans to make sure that we don’t have an in-year overspend in Northern Ireland.

“That is of course going to involve some difficult choices, but I hope people will see from the way we are handling the budget overall for the UK, we are determined to protect the most vulnerable.”

Mr Baker also said he could see a path to the return of the Stormont institutions which collapsed earlier this year when the DUP withdrew as part of its protest against the post-Brexit protocol.

“Through the work that we have been doing, we have helped change the negotiating dynamic with the European Union.

“We now know that everybody wants to get to a position where we have resolved the protocol and we can get on with the normal business of government.

“There is a path to doing it, it is a slightly steep uphill path because some of the legitimate interests of unionists are very serious and will require big movements from the EU.

“I can see a very big moment where we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Belfast-Good Friday Agreement with people flying in from all over the world to do so and with the institutions up and running and getting on with that crucial business of reforming public services.”