Northern Ireland’s Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald has ruled out raising tuition fees for NI students that study here, and has instead written to the Executive asking for higher education to be prioritised in the June monitoring round.
Following Conor Murphy’s successful election to the Seanad, Sinn Féin has announced a reshuffle of their Executive Ministers. Liz Kimmins joins John O’Dowd and Caoimhe Archibald on the frontbench – but all in new departments.
Caoimhe Archibald has launched a ‘strategic roadmap’ for the rates system in Northern Ireland and announced a consultation to be released in January to raise the Maximum Capital Value on domestic properties to £485,000.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has announced that the Northern Ireland Executive is to receive an additional £1.5 billion for next year’s budget, bringing the total to £18.2 billion for 2025/26 – “the largest in real terms in the history of devolution” according to NI Secretary Hilary Benn.
After the UK government’s decision to pause funding for city and growth deals until the spending review, Executive ministers have said they are “gravely concernced”, with Michelle O’Neill branding it as “unacceptable and deplorable”.
The Executive has agreed to allocate an additional £122 million to the Department of Health and £43.7 million to the Department of Education as part of the June monitoring round, but the SDLP have criticised the timing of the annoucement with the general election on Thursday.
Finance Minister Dr Caoimhe Archibald has today signed an Interim Fiscal Framework with the Treasury in London, making £24 million available for allocation in Stormont’s budget immediately.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said that is is “business as usual as far as the Executive is concerned” following the changes in the DUP’s ranks; Emma Little-Pengelly said that “people demand stability and delivery and that is what I will be focusing on”.
