Responding to the publication of the Northern Ireland Audit Office report ‘Overview of the Northern Ireland Executive’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic’, UUP Leader and Chair of the Finance Committee, Steve Aiken OBE MLA said:
"The NI Audit Office report offers an early insight into the scale of spending required to support the Health Service and Economy during the Covid-19 pandemic so far. The complex challenges of fighting COVID-19 arrived quickly and spanned every aspect of life. To help save lives and mitigate the impact of lockdown on jobs and the economy it has been necessary to spend at levels that would previously have been unthinkable.
"The support provided by our Government to Northern Ireland via the Barnett Formula and by direct subvention cannot be underestimated. The spending analysed by the Audit Office report also doesn’t take into account the Northern Ireland portion of the job retention scheme which has supported hundreds of thousands of people locally.
“The financial support we have benefited from as part of the United Kingdom helped to fortify our National Health Service during the biggest public health crisis it has faced since its creation and helped support businesses and their employees by mitigating the damage caused by lockdown and restricted movement. It is inconceivable that this level of support would have been provided if Northern Ireland wasn’t part of the Union; unfortunately, the £2.2 Bn that has been provided over the last few months will be ignored and discounted by those so called ‘informed’ commentators that seek to constantly denigrate the very obvious benefits of being part of the United Kingdom.”