Stormont: Northern Ireland budget entering ‘no-deal territory’, says education minister

Also speaking on Good Morning Ulster, Ann Watt, from the public policy think tank Pivotal, said the Northern Ireland’s negotiating strategy has so far been successful, forcing two increased offers from the British government.

“They’ve moved a lot,” she said.

She said “the UK government has moved significantly”, now Stormont need to “put together a plan of what are they going to do”.

Watt explained how Sir Chris’s offer would be spent, and outlined that one of Northern Ireland’s biggest costs is “far higher employment in the public sector than elsewhere in the UK”.

“That £1.5bn is over three years, so around £525m per year… and that is mostly spent on day-to-day costs of running public services.”

This, she said, meant “delivering health, education, infrastructure, the environment and so on”.

Around £450m would be spent for that primary purpose, said Watt, with the remainder used for modernising public services, building social housing, and tackling benefits fraud.

“But that money is well, well short of what the executive says it needs,” said Watt.