Source · Select Committees · Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
Recommendation 5
5
Accepted
Paragraph: 32
The commitment to funding under the New Decade New Approach agreement was instrumental in: re-establishing...
Recommendation
The commitment to funding under the New Decade New Approach agreement was instrumental in: re-establishing the Executive in 2020; the allocation of funding for health workers’ pay and public services and securing the Executive’s finances on a sustainable footing. The extent to which NDNA has turbocharged infrastructure investment is, however, unclear. We ask the Government to set out how much 32 Investment inNorthern Ireland Barnett-based and other NDNA funding has been allocated for infrastructure investment since 2020. We note the Government’s general six-monthly updates on progress against NDNA objectives. However, we recommend that to increase transparency the Government publish periodic, detailed financial updates, breaking down how it has allocated NDNA funding so far, and how it plans to allocate the funding that remains, against NDNA objectives, including for example against the objective of using that funding to achieve 5,000 cybersecurity professionals by 2030.
Government Response Summary
The government states that the Northern Ireland Office already reports on the implementation of NDNA funding through a Written Ministerial Statement published every six months, detailing financial commitments.
Paragraph Reference:
32
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
The Northern Ireland Office already reports on the implementation of NDNA funding through a Written Ministerial Statement published every six months. The most recent of these was published on 20 October 2022 and the next is due in April 2023. These reports set out the delivery of financial commitments from the NDNA financial package. Of the £1 billion funding, over £750 million has been already allocated towards such outcomes as: • bringing an end to the nurses’ pay dispute in January 2020; • the creation of a new Northern Ireland Graduate Entry Medical School in Derry/ Londonderry; • supporting low carbon transport in Northern Ireland, enabling the Department for Infrastructure to commit to ordering 100 low-carbon buses to be deployed in Belfast and Derry/Londonderry; and • addressing Northern Ireland’s unique circumstances through projects and programmes that tackle paramilitarism, promote greater integration in education, support economic prosperity, and support the Irish language and Ulster-Scots.