That's it from our rolling coverage of the 2023-24 budget announcement for Northern Ireland.

Thank you for joining us for news, reaction and in-depth analysis throughout the day.

You'll find more on this story and other news from Northern Ireland on the BBC News NI site, on hourly bulletins throughout the evening on BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Sounds and on BBC Newsline at 18:30 BST and 22:30 on BBC One Northern Ireland and the BBC iPlayer.

Goodbye for now.

Stephen Walker
BBC News NI political correspondent

If this budget and its ramifications were intended as a carrot-and-stick approach from Chris Heaton-Harris to get the DUP back into power-sharing at Stormont, it is not likely to work.

The issue is complicated by the fact that elections for Northern Ireland's councils will take place within the next month.

Elections are not generally a time for flexibility so there is no expectation of political movement from the DUP this side of polling day.

Image source, Pa

The mood at Stormont in the wake of this budget is bleak and the parties are fearful of what happens next, believing that big cuts to public services are coming.

For once they are all speaking with one voice.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris says the budget he's set for Stormont is not as bad as many people had predicted after his officials struck a deal with the Treasury.

That agreement gives Stormont an extra year to pay back a £300m debt after it spent too much money last year.

Image source, PA Media

"If you were to legitimately follow the rules of how we spend public money [the £300m] should be repaid this year," he says.

He hopes that legislation he's introducing will allow public services to continue to run "hopefully seamlessly" under the governance of civil servants in the absence of ministers at Stormont.

Read more: Heaton-Harris denies setting out 'punishment budget'

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

Alongside the budget today, the government is also introducing a bill that extends the period for civil servants to be able to operate without ministers being in place.

It's got a long, technical title: The Northern Ireland (Interim Arrangements) Bill.

Civil servants have been operating under severely-limited powers since October, when ministers were removed from post.

Under the existing provisions - due to run out in June - they can take some decisions to ensure day-to-day running of services but they have been reluctant to make any moves that would be deemed political or controversial.

Civil servants are not elected or accountable so they find themselves caught up in a political crisis not of their making that looks like it will to continue for some time yet.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

"Quite grim" is how Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie describes this year's budget for Northern Ireland.

"It's difficult to do anything without a government up and running," he tells reporters at Hillsborough Castle, where he met Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris.

Image source, PA Media

"The government and the DUP are talking about what can be done on the margins to get the executive up and running - we're not being kept privy to that," he says.

"But it's becoming clear to me we are moving towards something in the autumn."

Those talks to restore devolution are moving at a "snail's pace".

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

The top civil servant in Stormont's Department of Finance says he and his colleagues will work to "plot the least harmful course we can".

Permanent secretary Neil Gibson says hard work will be required to manage the budget and the time ahead will be challenging.

But he adds that the decision to allow Stormont's £300m overspend from last year to be repaid over the next two years instead of within one creates a "better starting position" than he had initially feared.

He says rising costs including inflation mean the financial situation is still unprecedented.

"Facing those rising pressures with a budget that is effectively standing still puts us all in a position we haven't been in before," he says.

Stormont's Department of Health says the fact that its funding will not increase this year means there will be a "material impact" on health services.

It will receive a similar level of funding as it did last year.

But in a statement issued in the past few minutes, the department says no allowance has been made for the "increasing costs of running services and the rising demand for care across the population".

"Consequently, 2023-24 will inevitably involve significant financial pressures across health and social care," it says.

Included in the budget is a funding commitment of £1.1m for a flight route between the City of Derry Airport and London Heathrow Airport.

The UK government subsidises the Derry-to-London route under what is known as a public service obligation, helping airlines to run flights that would otherwise not be commercially viable.

A new contract for that subsidy was announced in last month.

In April Scottish airline Loganair, which runs the flights, said the route would be switching from Stanstead Airport to Heathrow.

John Campbell
BBC News NI economics and business editor

In his analysis of the budget, Ulster University economist Esmond Birney says the decision to allow Stormont to repay last year's £300m overspend over two years instead of one has "a sense of the least worst option" about it.

Having to stump up the cash immediately "would have implied very large spending cuts in this year", he says.

But it also presents a longer-term predicament: "Once again Stormont is being given special arrangements in order to navigate its financial difficulties.

"There is every possibility that this experience will influence future behaviour, making future financial crises more likely - this is called the problem of moral hazard."

Image source, NIO

Politicians from the five main parties at Stormont met Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris and his officials this afternoon to discuss his budget plan.

His office has just released this photo from the meeting at Hillsborough Castle in County Down.

The looks on the faces of those sitting around the table say more about how it went than words ever could.

Image source, PA Media

As the purse strings tighten at Stormont there is no sign that long-running rows about pay for public sector workers will end.

Yesterday most schools in Northern Ireland had to close because teachers went on strike.

Hundreds of them gathered in Belfast city centre to show their anger and frustration about the pay stalemate.

Image source, PA Media

"Why is my labour worth so much less than it is in the rest of the UK when we have a world class education system?" asked teacher Melanie Doherty.

Also on the picket lines were public service workers at ports, MOT centres and courts.

Image source, PA Media

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson says he's disappointed with the Stormont budget set out by the Northern Ireland secretary.

He accuses Chris Heaton-Harris of "playing politics with some of our public services" because of the lack of provision for pay rises for health workers and other civil servants.

He says: "We can only deliver effective and good public services in Northern Ireland if we’ve got the people to do it.

"There’s a real problem with recruitment and retention of public sector workers, some of whom haven’t had a decent pay award now for a number of years."

Image source, PA

The budget would typically be drawn up by Stormont politicians including the DUP.

But on this occasion the Northern Ireland secretary and his staff have had to take on that role because the power-sharing government at Stormont is not functioning.

It fell apart after the DUP pulled out of its leading role in the ruling executive last year in protest over post-Brexit trade rules.

John Campbell
BBC News NI economics and business editor

An initial comparison with last year's budget figures suggests that aside from health, the Department for Infrastructure is the only other department with a flat cash settlement.

That means its budget has not gone up but also has not gone down.

Image source, Getty Images

The infrastructure department's remit includes roads, public transport, water and sewerage services, airports, seaports and the planning system.

All other Stormont departments will see their budgets fall in cash terms.

An initial comparison with last year's budget figures suggests that among the major-spending departments the amount of money going to education, justice and economy has been cut by about 2% in cash terms.

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has met the main Stormont parties at Hillsborough Castle in County Down this afternoon to discuss his budget plan.

In the past few minutes he's emerged from those discussions to speak to the press and hit back at accusations that he had set out a "punishment budget".

Image source, PA Media

"The purpose was not to punish anybody with this budget it's to make sure services can continue in absence of devolved government," he says.

Asked what else he could offer the DUP given its refusal to return to Stormont has not changed, he replies: "Let's see where talks lead to."

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

Former Stormont Finance Minister Conor Murphy says the budget will "devastate public services".

Image source, PA Media

"The absence of an executive is really reprehensible at this stage when this is the outcome for people we represent," adds the Sinn Féin politician.

Mr Murphy also accuses the Northern Ireland secretary of having no plan to restore the power-sharing government at Stormont.

John Campbell
BBC News NI economics and business editor

Image source, Getty Images

Stormont's Department of Health has been allocated a budget similar to what it received last year.

That "flat cash" funding will likely be viewed as a difficult settlement for the department, given the high rate of inflation and outstanding pay demands from health staff.

Typically the department will operate on the basis that it needs an annual increase of 6% to stand still, given demographic pressures and some costs unique to healthcare.

Jayne McCormack
BBC News NI political correspondent

The Stormont political parties have just finished a roundtable meeting with the Northern Ireland secretary about the budget.

SDLP assembly member Matthew O'Toole says the with meeting Chris Heaton-Harris was concerning.

Image source, PA Media

He says the budget will mean "a real squeeze on public services" imposed on people in Northern Ireland that they did not deserve, ask or vote for.

It's "unethical and it's wrong", he says, to make public services and "ordinary people in Northern Ireland pay for the DUP's boycott" of Stormont.

"Today's discussion was frustrating - we wanted clarity from the secretary of state that he wouldn't impose punitive cuts and from [DUP leader] Sir Jeffrey Donaldson on when he would re-enter government. I'm afraid we didn't get either of those."

Robbie Meredith
BBC News NI education correspondent

Compared with last year, the Department of Education is facing a 2.5% cut in its budget - just under £70m less in cash terms.

But given rising costs faced by schools and bodies like the Education Authority for things like food, transport and energy the "real terms" reduction will be higher.

There had also been warnings that education was facing a funding gap running to hundreds of millions of pounds.

Image source, Getty

The department has already cut a number of schemes targeted especially at pupils from low-income backgrounds to save money.

There will be more difficult decisions ahead.

The Department for the Economy, which oversees further and higher education, has also had a small cut in its budget compared with last year, which will affect those sectors.

Civil servants in Northern Ireland were bracing themselves for this budget and their "fears were well founded", says a union that represents them.

Allan Sampson from the FDA says the decisions made by Chris Heaton-Harris are "likely to have profound consequences on the delivery of public services".

"The secretary of state will not specify how those cuts should be made - those exceptionally difficult decisions, will have to be taken by civil servants," he says.

"The people of Northern Ireland are right to expect that democratically-elected politicians, who should be held to account, should be making these decisions."