About Budget

The Budget provides the Executive with an opportunity to improve the lives of people in Northern Ireland by allocating resources to high priority areas and where the additional funds will yield the greatest benefit. It also provides an opportunity to assess if spending in certain areas should be continued or whether or not these resources would be of greater benefit to the public if spent elsewhere.

Individual Ministers will determine how the additional resources from the Budget are distributed within their respective departments in the context of competing needs and priorities. This is the first opportunity for the restored Executive to set out its own expenditure plans and priorities distinct from those of Direct Rule Ministers.

The most significant issue impacting on the level of resources available for allocation in the Budget is the share of total public expenditure allocated to Northern Ireland by the Treasury. On 9 October 2007 the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced the outcome of the UK wide Comprehensive Spending Review which set out the level of resources the NI Executive would receive from Treasury over the period 2008-09 to 2010-11. The growth in the level of available resources will be less than in previous spending reviews highlighting the need for Northern Ireland Departments to deliver services more efficiently and to focus on those areas which bring most benefit to the people of Northern Ireland.

The Budget has been developed within the context of the developing Programme for Government, establishing links between spending allocations and the planned outcomes in the form of Public Service Agreements. The additional allocations to Departments,agreed by the Executive in response to the issues raised during the public consultation process have also been incorporated in the Final Budget document.

The Investment Strategy will inform the capital allocations contained in the Budget and beyond as this document will set the direction for investment in public sector infrastructure for the next decade.