Ulster Unionist Finance Spokesperson, Philip Smith MLA, has warned that the Executive failing to agree a Budget for 2017/18 will exacerbate economic instability and would likely engender significant cuts across public services.

Philip Smith said:

“The DUP and Sinn Fein’s inability to govern not only looks set to collapse the Executive, but also ensure that Northern Ireland will be in the frightening position of entering into the 2017/18 financial year without a functioning Budget.  

“The consequences of such a scenario would be profound.  Staff in those community groups dependent on support from Government will shortly be given protective redundancy notice, the crisis in our health service will further deteriorate as vital funding decisions are abandoned, and there could be a devastating 7% in-year cut to public services.

“An ongoing failure to produce a Budget will see vital public services such as public transport and schools effectively running on bare minimum with only skeleton management at the top of local Executive Departments as officials avoid taking any policy decisions.

“In addition, political instability invariably leads to economic instability. Once again, after a crisis completely of the DUP and Sinn Fein’s making, Northern Ireland’s international reputation has taken a hammering.

“The collapse of the institutions and the fiasco of entering a financial year without having a Budget in place will come as a body blow to the proposed reduction of Corporation Tax. Investor confidence has inevitably been knocked by recent events, and now we face the incredible prospect of having no Government in place when Article 50 is triggered. The situation would be laughable if it were not so extremely serious.”