First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly officially opened the first phase of a £100m investment programme into Belfast International Airport by its owner, VINCI Airports, on Tuesday.
The Northern Ireland Executive has agreed on a budget for the 2025/26 financial year following a meeting on Thursday. Finance Minister John O’Dowd said the Executive are determined to “work together to deliver.”
Speaking at the annual Northern Ireland Bureau breakfast in Washington, D.C., Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly has highlighted Northern Ireland as a “place of transformation, ambition and opportunity.”
The announcement of the Programme for Government has been delayed after an Executive meeting scheduled for Wednesday morning was postponed, after Alliance Minister Andrew Muir said he hadn’t seen the updated document after ministers were asked for feedback.
Finance Minister John O’Dowd has announced an allocation of over £17 million to Stormont departments to help deal with the impacts of Storm Éowyn. The Department for Infrastructure received over £8 million to assist their clean-up operation.
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.
Stormont’s Health Minister Mike Nesbitt has launched a new three-year plan for Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland, focused on three central themes of stablisation, reform and delivery.
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.
The 42nd meeting of the British-Irish Council (BIC) was held in Edinburgh on Friday 6 December, with First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma-Little Pengelly attending on behalf of the Northern Ireland Executive.
