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Christopher Stalford draws today's business to a close.

Not bad going as budget debates have been known to run on until the early hours of the morning.

We'll be back bright and early tomorrow morning for a meeting of the Education Committee at 09:15.

The members will be hearing from representatives of the childcare sector on the challenges posed by the Covid-19 crisis.

Do join us then. In the meantime, stay safe and have a relaxing evening

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The assembly then moves to the final item of business for the day - a vote to extend the committee stage of the Functioning of Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill.

Steve Aiken, the chairperson of the Finance Committee, proposes the motion.

Time is tight due to the Covid crisis and in his opening remarks, he says it was "not clear at the outset to which committee" the bill "would be referred in the second stage".

Mr Aiken says it's now with the Finance Committee and they wish to have time to take evidence from "relevant stakeholders".

As such, he says the committee has agreed to push the date of scrutiny to 2 December 2020 and seeks the assembly's approval to do so.

Jim Allister whose private member's bill it is says he has "no objection whatsoever to scrutiny" and hopes the committee can conclude its role before December.

The motion passes on an oral vote.

The result of the Budget Bill vote is 80 members voted and 76 voted aye.

It passes on a cross-community vote.

Principal Deputy Speaker Christopher Stalford puts the budget to an oral vote.

It's an (almost) overwhelming "aye" with a few faint "noes".

"The ayes have it, I think," says Mr Stalford, before bowing to the advice of the clerk and calling a division.

The members reluctantly begin to troop out.

Join us in about 15 minutes for the cliffhanger result...

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The DUP's Mervyn Storey intervenes to ask about the proposed graduate medical school at Ulster University's Magee campus in Londonderry.

He asks why the minister has "allocated £15m to something that is not financially viable".

Mr Murphy replies that it is a "commitment in principle" and will "need to pass the necessary scrutiny any public expenditure would".

Turning to points raised by Pat Catney, the minister says he "understands his passion to support small businesses".

Conor Murphy says in the current situation "the executive, supported by assembly, have risen to challenge" of Covid-19 and have "got significant amount of money out" to "support our economy".

Finance Minister Conor Murphy replies to the debate.

"I've heard demands for a litany of more expenditure and no propositions for where in a finite budget we're going to cut if we want to spend more in other areas," he says.

He says he will bring a further budget bill to the committee in the autumn.

Mr Murphy warns against having to spend significant amounts of unspent money back to the Treasury at the end of the financial year.

The minister says the Treasury "will be looking to recoup as much money as it can".

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Mr Murphy addresses many of the points raised by the speakers.

He says some have suggested that the executive borrow money to "pay our way out of this".

"The executive can access up to £200m of borrowing," the minister says, adding that it can only be used for capital expenditure.

"It couldn't be used for resource costs such as grants to businesses or to help with running costs without the agreement of Treasury," he adds.

People Before Profit's Gerry Carroll also pays tribute to John Dallat.

He turns to the budget and says the impact of Covid-19 is being "felt most strongly by those at the bottom of society".

Mr Carroll says there should be "no return to nurses standing in cold for months for pay they deserve," adding that it is "bizarre in the extreme to hear committee chairs raise concerns" but eventually, he says they will vote in favour of the budget.

In terms of the health budget, he says it's more about "efficiencies and savings rather than massive investment".

The MLA asks if "no lessons have been learned, or is this executive as neo-liberal as the last one?".

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Justin McNulty of the SDLP begins by speaking about John Dallat and says that, to him, he "epitomised the size of the fight in the man, not the size of the man in the fight".

Turning to the budget, Mr McNulty says there is "much uncertainty and lack of scrutiny process".

He says there is a need for the "executive to step in and step up to support councils".

The TUV's Jim Allister is concerned about the "challenging and difficult times" we live in:

"On the other side of Covid-19 the fiscal commitments which have been made will have to be paid for and the economy that, whatever shape it emerges in, it will be indisputably weaker than it entered this crisis."

Mr Allister says it is "a comfort to any thinking person to know that at our back we have a major country, the United Kingdom, with a leading role in the world's economy and with opportunities and reserves far greater than many lesser countries".

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Rachel Woods of the Greeen Party calls for a process with "real time for scrutiny" of the budget.

"We do not have any of the detail," she says.

"This is not how budgets should be planned. It is not how public money should be spent,"Ms Woods says.

The DUP's William Irwin begins by paying tribute to John Dallat.

He turn to the budget and says "we must not forget the heavy impact coronavirus has had on the province, the Republic of Ireland and indeed the rest of the world".

The MLA says he commends the "measures put in place to mitigate the worst effects" of Covid-19.

He says "departments must continue to operate and support the health and well-being of Northern Ireland".

Mr Irwin refers to the "significant support mechanisms put in place by the Westminster government" and pays tribute to farmers who have kept up the food supply.

He says it is "evident the network worked well under immense pressure" adding, "thankfully these pressures have subsided somewhat" as less people are bulk buying.

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Sinead McLaughlin of the SDLP says the death of John Dallat has been a great loss to her party and wishes his family, "who he spoke of often", her condolences.

She says there need to be "urgent progress" for the medical school at Magee, which she recalls is something her party "insisted should be included in the New Decade, New Approach" document.

She says she is "really concerned about the situation facing our young people and adults" and their future employment opportunities.

Ms McLaughlin turns to the issue of infrastructure and the need for broadband to help "with current and perhaps future isolation lockdowns".

"Broadband is absolutely essential for getting our economy right," she says.

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The SDLP's Pat Catney calls for greater support for "small family-owned SMEs that are the backbone of Northern Ireland's economy".

For the second time today he references a pub his sister owns in the centre of Belfast.

Mr Catney says that in England businesses with multiple premises are able to access support for each of these, but no such scheme exists in Northern Ireland.

He says he's proud of the years he spent working in Belfast inside "a ring of steel" but that MLAs need to "step up to the plate" because "it's now worse than that".

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Paula Bradshaw of Alliance says she wants to concentrate on health spending.

"The reality is that the wider health transformation agenda has again unfortunately been seriously disrupted and delayed," she says.

Cathal Boylan, a Sinn Féin MLA who sits on the Infrastructure Committee, begins by paying tribute to John Dallat.

He says of the budget, the Department for Infrastructure "has many responsibilities" for "services people use on a daily basis".

Mr Boylan says "this is by far the highest resource budget the department has received since it’s inception" and commends the finance minister for his work, with other executive colleagues, to "secure support for airports".

"These are not normal circumstances for a budget," he says adding that "Covid-19 has reminded people of the importance of core pubic services".

"The same public services have been stripped for years and years under austerity," he says.

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The DUP's Mervyn Storey says the last time there was a budget in the house was when he was Finance Minister in 2016-17.

He says "the party opposite" were "not worrying about the medical school, not worrying about the poor, not worrying about the unemployed, not worrying about the children, not worrying about education" but says, for "purely political reasons they ran away".

"Shame on the party opposite that it took four years" he says to return to the executive table.

He adds, "Maybe figures don't mean much to the members opposite," adding that "85% of block grant makes up the budget - where does that come from, the Irish Republic, Europe, fiscal polices that we have here?"

"It comes from the very place the members opposite criticise," he says.

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Matthew O'Toole says budgets are always works in progress "but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be scrutinised on their own terms".

He says the ending of the health crisis will prompt "a fresh and detailed look at our fiscal circumstances".

Mr O'Toole says there is confusion over budgets that is "a product of the mash of packages from which funding has been derived over the past number of years"

He lists some of these; including Fresh Start, confidence and supply and New Decade, New Approach.

Let this be the last budget based on short term fixes," Mr O'Toole says.

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The DUP's Gary Middleton says the Department of Health has long been seen as the priority and that should remain the case.

"There needs to be a greater emphasis in terms of some of the other departments as well," he says.

Mr Middleton says the current situation of health crisis has made it very hard for committees to scrutinise the budget.

Pam Cameron - DUP MLA and deputy chairperson of the Health Committee - resumes the debate.

She begins by extending her "condolences to friends and family of John Dallat" adding it's a "very difficult time for anyone to be grieving".

Turning the the budget, she says it's important to resource the NHS, and ensure the "daily needs of those ill and suffering are daily met".

She says MLAs should "never see nurses again on strike to bring a fair pay settlement".

"While we would all want more, we work within finite resources," she adds.

Mrs Cameron says there is a need for "clarity around £72m savings target" for the Department of Health and asks, "is it realistic given pressures around Covid-19?".

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Sinn Féin's Karen Mullan is the deputy chair of the Education Committee.

Mrs Mullan welcomes the "first significant increase" in the education budget in 10 years.

She commends "all involved in" making the "long-awaited pay award to teachers" happen.

"Covid-19 has brought with it much tragedy"she says, and thanks all teaching staff and youth services for their work during this period.

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Declan McAleer chairs the Agriculture Committee.

He says he committee expressed concern over CAP payments and that they welcome £293m secured for 2021.

Mr McAleer says concerns surround "what will replace funding of the basic payment and what form it will take in future years".

The committee chair says he is "pleased to see £2.2m allocated for staff to deliver new climate change legislation and a scoping study of an environmental protection agency".

He also pays tribute to the agri-food sector, which he says has "taken the biggest hit during the Covid-19 crisis".

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Alliance's Andrew Muir says "nobody in the chamber can say with any confidence what the future may hold".

He says members have been "asked to vote upon what can best be described as a blindfold budget".

Mr Muir says it's important to ensure "front line services can continue" through flexibility and to "ensure executive departments can continue to operate on a sound financial basis, not just now, but throughout the rest of the year".

The members take a comfort break at this point.

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Alan Chambers speaks as the of the health spokesperson of the UUP.

He says that at the end of the year this budget will, in all likelihood, look very different from what is being discussed today.

"Transformation is key yet this budget sadly didn't acknowledge that," Mr Chambers says.

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The DUP's Paul Frew also thinks that what's being debated today will probably be something completely different by the end of the financial year.

"We are in unprecedented times and things are very fast moving," he says.

Colm Gildernew (below), the chairperson of the Health Committee, pays tribute to healthcare workers tackling Covid-19, and says there is "enormous pressure" on the system.

He says that the budget allocation "falls short on the department's estimated requirement".

Mr Gildernew says "transformation" of health is "essential to deal with rising costs" adding there is "concerning evidence of growing financial strain" with "little opportunity to address these strains due to Covid-19".

As Sinn Féin's health spokesperson, he thanks the minister for resolving the pay issue for health staff earlier in the year.

He says it is "essential to protect and promote our health and social care system" and that changes are needed to the system.

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Daniel McCrossan (below) is the chair of the Audit Committee. He begins by paying tribute to his party colleague John Dallat.

Mr McCrossan then outlines the scrutiny role of the committee and the work it carried out on the budget proposals.

In his capacity as SDLP education spokesperson he says the education budget is "concerning" as it is "still £165m short".

He adds: "Pre-Covid-19 our school system was crippling at its knees."

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Caoimhe Archibald of Sinn Féin chairs the Committee for the Economy.

She says some of its members have expressed frustration that the Department for the Economy's budget has been treated as "a moving target".

"It will be some months before there is truly clear picture that the Covid-19 crisis and the subsequent executive response is having on the 2020-2021 budget," she adds.

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The DUP's Paul Givan, chairperson of the Justice Committee.

He says the Depart of Justice has indicated that the funding allocated in the budget is not adequate to maintaining the current level of services and the minister has raised her concerns with the finance minister.

Michelle McIlveen, chairperson of the Committee for Infrastructure, says the budget allocation for the Infrastructure Department is an increase of £33m on last year.

"The department has warned" she says, that "£33m for DfI will have severe implications" for a number of aspects, including waste water, road maintenance, street gritting and public transport.

She turns to NI Water and says it has not been possible "to fund NI water to levels" recommended by the utility regulator, adding that "developments at over 100 location across NI have the potential to stagnate".

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Miss McIveen says the committee was told the "Translink could become insolvent" and that it "ran its service on deficit and used reserves to supplement".

She says those "reserves next year, are well below the level of working capital" adding that "Translink revenue streams have dried up due to lockdown and social distancing".

The committee has written to the finance minister, she says, for clarity on why it is the "only department not to have received money" from a Covid-19 fund.

She says the Infrastructure minister "acknowledged this when she came to the committee last week" and said there would be a £90-£114m loss to the department in funding due to a lack of revenue from Translink.

Regarding NI Water, Miss McIlveen says the loss could be between £17.5m and £32m which, "if this revenue stream is not covered" could make "NI Water unable to sustain essential services".

She says that the DVA is "primarily funded through fees and services" which has had "little to no income collected" since Covid-19 began.

Chris Lyttle, the chair of the Education Committee, says the budget provides £200m "less than requested" by the department.

He says "due to Covid-19 some of the expenditure planned has been paused" by the department, adding that the "resource pressures still exceed the budget by £165m".

Mr Lyttle says the figures show "significant financial challenge" and that the system of education in Northern Ireland "demands radical reform and reorganisation".

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He refers to the "restoration of modest funding for the Book Trust, Book Start programme" to help those in early years.

Mr Lyttle says this "programme will be even more important during isolation".

The committee chaipersonr, says members seek further rationale from the minister on the £4m for "preparatory schools and boarding schools".

He also adds that the "state of disrepair of school estate" in Northern Ireland is something that should also be addressed.

The SDLP's Colin McGrath, who chairs the Committee for the Executive Office begins by paying a brief tribute to his late party colleague, John Dallat.

He says Mr Dallat had "a fire in his belly that many would be jealous of".

Returning to the budget debate, Mr McGrath says the Covid-19 pandemic "has changed beyond recognition the way we work and conduct our lives".

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Mr McGrath is particularly concerned about payments to be made under the redress scheme for victims and survivors of historical institutional abuse.

"I'd like to point out very clearly that the committee believes the maximum amounts payable should be more. The victims and survivors deserve more," he says.