Over £126 Million re-invested this year across Northern Ireland

Finance Minister Nigel Dodds has underlined the role the Executive has played in cushioning the impact of the economic downturn on individuals and local businesses.

He was speaking on the day he announced the February Monitoring round to the Assembly, detailing the latest in-year financial position, including additional allocations to Departments.

Speaking of the range of measures adopted by the Executive, the Minister said: “The current economic downturn is having a real impact on local people and local businesses. In my role as Finance Minister I see and hear of the pressures faced by people right across Northern Ireland.

“These are undoubtedly challenging times, however it is quite clear that having a devolved administration at Stormont has enabled us to make decisions that are helping people through these challenging times.

“We now oversee an Investment Strategy that will pump around £1.5billion into the local economy this year.  This is over twice what was invested only five years ago and is making a real difference to firms suffering from the drop in private house building.

“We have also frozen both domestic and non-domestic rates and will soon introduce a small business rate relief scheme. I have also set a target for the public sector to ensure invoices are paid within 10 days, to help local firms with their cash flow. Individuals have also benefitted from, among other things, a reduction in the cost of prescription charges with a view to abolishing them next year and from the provision of free public transport for pensioners.”

The Minister went on to highlight that he had been able to make additional help available to key sectors as part of the in-year monitoring process.

Mr Dodds continued: “Through the monitoring process, I have been able to ensure that over £126million of additional funding has been allocated to Departments since July of last year.

“This process has allowed me to fund over £51million of capital works, including an additional £20million to DARD for the Farm Nutrient Management Scheme, providing another avenue of work for local construction firms, and £20million to DSD to address the shortfall in housing receipts.

“Furthermore, I have allocated almost £75million in additional current expenditure which has provided the Department of Health with an additional £20million and the Department of Education with £5million more for extended schools activities.”

The Minister also announced that funding would also be made available to extend the Fuel Poverty payment to a further 50,000 low income households, allowing 150,000 households to benefit from this payment.

The Minister concluded: “This level of spend represents a real and meaningful achievement of the Executive in the most difficult of circumstances.”

Notes to Editors:

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