He was speaking as the Assembly debated the second stage of the Budget Bill.
Describing the efficiency cuts as the real threat to the Executive’s three year budget, the Minister said: “The knock-on effect of the announcement in the Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report that he would seek to find £5billion of efficiency savings across Whitehall departments has the potential to seriously impact the Executive’s budget plans in 2010/2011.
“The extent to which this will affect Northern Ireland will not become clear until the budget is unveiled in April. Recent announcements by the Opposition indicate that they would be even more draconian in their plans and would start this process in the 2009/2010 financial year.”
The Minister said that he would be challenging the Chancellor to ensure that the three year settlement to 2011, agreed as part of the last Comprehensive Spending Review, would be honoured in full.
The Minister continued: “We are undoubtedly in challenging economic times and the Executive has done much to help alleviate the impact on individuals and small businesses whilst working to stimulate the local economy.
“The swingeing cuts proposed from Whitehall, however, would have a serious impact on the work of this Executive and could have a devastating effect on front-line services.
“Despite this serious threat to the Executive, some local voices are calling for a re-examination of what each department has been allocated.
“Unfortunately, the fact is that if we did re-write the Budget, without additional money, departments like Health, which accounts for almost 50% of all departmental spending, would undoubtedly suffer cuts.
“I am not prepared to target our health service, however as these people provide no alternative options for finding additional money, they are inevitably proposing that we cut money from the health service.”
“We have a budget, unanimously agreed by the Executive, that puts boosting the local economy at its heart.”
The Minister emphasised that this political point scoring would not help the Assembly deal with the real issue at hand – that of the potential impact of the efficiency savings.
Mr Dodds concluded: “This is the real threat facing the Executive’s budget. I will be working hard to challenge the Chancellor not to enforce these cuts on Northern Ireland and would hope that all parties in the Assembly will support me in putting a strong case to Westminster that he should honour his promises.
Notes to Editors:
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