NI Executive to meet to decide when budget is set

The executive will meet on Monday to decide when the next Stormont budget should be set, Finance Minister Conor Murphy has said.

Departments have been setting out what they need financially to meet existing pressures and new commitments.

Mr Murphy is due to travel to London for further meetings with Treasury officials next week.

He said he had no desire to go to Whitehall, but that his job was to "secure as much resource" as he can.

New Chancellor Rishi Sunak is expected to deliver Westminster's budget on 11 March.

• Finance package keeps NI in 'austerity trap'

• Does cutting corporation tax always raise more money?

• Is it game over for NI corporation tax?

Mr Murphy rejected suggestions that public warnings from Stormont civil servants about potential cuts to their departmental budgets were scaremongering.

"It's up to each department how they express various pressures, some people have chosen to do it with me behind closed doors, others have chosen to be more upfront about it," he said.

"There are no secrets about any of this - there are significant challenges and I have been tasked by the executive to go to the Treasury to engage with them to secure that funding."

The finance minister said he would bring a paper to his executive colleagues on Monday to decide when the Stormont budget would be presented to the assembly.

He added that departments had been making efficiencies and savings for the past nine years.

"We've been looking at ways to save money, we're also looking at ways to raise our own finances and I'll be bringing forward proposals soon in relation to fiscal powers and we will press Treasury to give us more fiscal levers here.

"I've no desire to be going to Whitehall, but we recognise the circumstances that we're in."

Mr Murphy was also asked about his offer to meet the family of Paul Quinn, a County Armagh man murdered in 2007.

The parents of murder victim Paul Quinn want Mr Murphy to state publicly that their son was not a criminal

The Sinn Féin MLA had said after the murder that Mr Quinn had been linked to criminality - a comment he recently withdrew and apologised for.

However, Mr Quinn's family want Mr Murphy to say their son was not a criminal, and visited Stormont on Monday to press their case.

Mr Murphy said his offer to meet the family still stands and that he hoped he could have discussions with them.

The Quinns insist they will not meet Sinn Féin until Mr Murphy states publicly that Paul Quinn was not a criminal.