Inspire Public Affairs Update 01/12/25

Inspire’s public affairs update is your source for the latest Northern Ireland Assembly discussions relevant to mental health, addiction, intellectual disability and autism. 

Our aim is to inform the public, our colleagues and the people who use Inspire services about pertinent issues in the political space, issues that should always be informed by the voice of lived experience. 

On 24th November, the Minister of Health, Mike Nesbitt, answered a question relating to transformational plans.

• Doug Beattie MLA asked the Minister of Health how he will ensure transformation plans focus on prevention and community care, rather than just managing hospital pressures.
• The Minister confirmed that prevention and community care are central to the transformation plan. He said that a “whole-system approach” involves working with the housing, education and voluntary sectors to address wider health determinants beyond hospital symptoms. Initiatives like Live Better aim to empower people to manage their own well-being, and a new public engagement campaign, ‘This is our Health’, will encourage partnership with the public in health management.
• In response to a question by Maolíosa McHugh MLA on the crisis in recruitment and retention in the independent community care sector, the Minister said “to make the profession more attractive, we need to pay people the right salary… I regret that I am not in a position to move as quickly to paying the real living wage as I wanted to.”

On 25th November, in advance of the UK Government’s Budget announcement, MLAs participated in a debate about a multi-year Budget for Northern Ireland.

• Matthew O’Toole MLA introduced the motion. He criticised local elected leaders for inaction around this topic and for a reliance on Whitehall’s authority, particularly with respect to the austerity agenda.
• He also highlighted promised reforms, such as those relating to vacant property relief, small business rates, domestic rates cap removal, which have not been delivered or even discussed. 
• All of this, he said, has contributed to a significant loss of public confidence in the devolved institutions’ ability to effect much needed change.
• He described a need for concrete plans on essential infrastructure funding and challenged the Minister of Finance to outline the fiscal powers that he wants and how he intends to use them.
• Introducing an amendment to the moton, Diane Forsythe MLA said that the DUP views multi-year Budgets as being vital for long-term planning: “Together, we face a significant challenge and we really need to work together to deliver meaningful multi-year Budgets for the good of everyone who lives and works here.” 
• However, she insisted that they must be paired with civil service reform, efficiency and accountability to tackle overspending, procurement failures and waste.
• Jemma Dolan MLA signalled Sinn Féin’s support for multi-year Budgets but suggested that austerity, Brexit and Westminster as major obstacles to progress.
• She referenced local efforts to secure funding and praised the Northern Ireland Executive’s welfare reform mitigation measures, calling for more fiscal devolution.
• Paula Bradshaw MLA confirmed that that the Alliance Party regards multi-year Budgets as a critical element of stable and consequential government. She also cited the benefits of efficiency, evidence-based funding and an honest debate around fiscal devolution. “Stability is a precondition for long-term budgeting, not an afterthought,” she said.
• Dr Steve Aiken MLA praised the Departments of Health’s £400m efficiencies and urged all departments to mirror that approach. He said that public-sector pay is a priority and highlighted wasteful spending, such delays in the A5 project.
• However, while the UUP is supportive of multi-year budgeting, he stated: “If we do not have the money, we need to be in a position where we can say how we will raise the extra revenue or how we will get better at spending the money that we have.”
• Gerry Carroll MLA denounced austerity economics and inequality. He proposed revenue-raising measures aimed at landlords, corporations and the wealthy.
• The Minister of Finance, John O’Dowd, informed MLAs that a multi-year Budget would be brought forward in the wake of the UK Government’s Budget. He acknowledged that overall funding is insufficient but talked about opportunities for certainty, planning and transformation.
• He said that the Department is pursuing a full fiscal framework with the government in London – this would include fiscal devolution. The goal of this, he contended, is to secure fiscal levers that work for Northern Ireland.
• He added: “… the need for transformation and embracing new methods of service delivery has never been clearer. That will require a willingness from all of us across the Executive, the Assembly and society to embrace change.”

On 27th November, the Northern Ireland Assembly’s Committee for Communities received a briefing from voluntary and community sector organisations on the Executive’s Anti-Poverty Strategy. 

• Siobhan Harding of the Women’s Support Network called the UK Government’s decision to scrap the two-child limit a key and positive development. She commended the Executive’s prior efforts to mitigate the effects of that policy.
• She said that, according to the sector’s engagement with those most likely to be impacted by the Strategy, there was a general sense of disappointment in the proposals. 
• Rachel Benson, representing the voice of lived experience, said that poverty is about a system that curb’s working people’s ability to thrive. In her opinion, the Stormont requires a lived-experience panel.
• Colm Gildernew MLA praised the voluntary and community sector’s sustained campaigning for an end to the two-child limit. He said that lived experience is foundational to effective anti-poverty work and raised concerns about the huge levels of consumer and personal debt incurred as a result of rising costs.
• The Northern Ireland Anti-Poverty Network’s Becca Bor asked the Committee to scrutinise the Department for Communities’s mechanisms for embedding lived experience in its anti-poverty agenda. She said that “cost of the school days” represents an enormous burden for working families.
• Siobhan Harding stressed that the Department’s focus should be on offering the public hope that help is coming.

The UK Government released its Budget last week.

• Amongst the many items, the Government announced an end to the two-child limit, a Conservative-era austerity measure that restricted the child element of Universal Credit to a maximum of two children in one household. This policy is expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty by 2029-30. 
• In addition, the Government will limit the tax breaks available to Motability, and other qualifying schemes, saving more than £1 billion over the next five years. VAT relief for top-up payments made to lease more expensive vehicles will be removed for new leases from July 2026, and Insurance Premium Tax will apply at the standard rate to insurance contracts on the scheme.
• The minimum will rise. From April, workers over 21 will see a 4.1% increase to their minimum wage, bringing it up to £12.71 an hour.
• The Budget awarded an extra £370 million to the Northern Ireland Executive. It will be available over the next three to four years, with £240m for day-to-day spending and £130 for investment.

Week commencing 1st December 2025

Assembly debate: pressure on PSNI due to health system failings – 1st December

Assembly debate: mental health de-escalation services in north Belfast – 2nd December

Committee for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs: ministerial briefing – 4th December

Committee for Health: briefings on the Adult Protection Bill – 4th December

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