Waiting lists: Extra £48m for NI health service

The Northern Ireland health service is to receive an extra £48m to help deal with waiting lists.

The Northern Ireland health service is to receive an extra £48m to help deal with waiting lists.

Waiting lists have risen sharply over the last year as the service operates with tight budgets.

Stormont Finance Minister Arlene Foster made the announcement as part of a reallocation of funds known as a monitoring round on Wednesday.

There is also an allocation of more than £21m for roads maintenance.

The minister said "significant savings" made through a redundancy scheme have eased budget pressures.

An extra £15m has been allocated to education.

It will be divided equally between school surpluses and the school estate - both capital and maintenance and special educational needs provision.

There will be £5m more in each area this year.

The entire education yearly budget is just over £1.9 billion, although over 75% of that is on salaries.

By John Campbell, BBC News NI Business Editor

During the summer, the finance minister began operating what was known as the fantasy budget.

It had that title as it was drawn up on the basis that welfare reform had been agreed, when in fact it hadn't.

There was the danger that this unorthodox arrangement could lead to Stormont breaching its spending totals with a shortfall of as much as £600m being talked about.

Tuesday's political deal means the fantasy is transformed into reality - but although the budget has been balanced it's still tight.

A special sitting of the Northern Ireland Assembly is taking place to pave the way for Westminster to legislate for welfare reform in Northern Ireland.

It followed a new agreement, announced on Wednesday, following 10 weeks of political talks.