NI Executive absence 'continues to delay cost of living support'

Conor Murphy said a range of support could be offered if the executive was restored

The absence of an NI Executive continues to delay support for people to deal with the cost of living crisis, the finance minister has said.

Conor Murphy said the DUP was prepared to "tell lies" about the extent to which Stormont could help.

He said this was to deflect from their refusal to return to power sharing.

DUP MP Sammy Wilson denied they were telling lies and said if an executive was to be restored, unallocated funds would have to cover budget shortfalls.

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) withdrew from the executive in protest over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is part of the Brexit deal, after the Northern Ireland Assembly election in May.

The executive is at the heart of Northern Ireland's devolved government, made up of ministers nominated to oversee key departments such as health, finance and justice.

'Fully aware'

Mr Murphy said a range of support could be offered if the executive was restored.

He told the Sunday Politics programme there was "no denying we have £270m sitting which cannot be spent".

"There is no denying that the £400 per household scheme which came to us in February, when the DUP first brought the executive down, that money I have no doubt would be in a scheme now and would begin to be distributed," he said.

• What help for rising bills is available in NI?

• Energy discount of £400 confirmed for NI - Murphy

Mr Murphy denied recent claims made by Mr Wilson on BBC Radio Ulster's Talkback programme that the £270m in unallocated funds is set to be used to cover deficits in Stormont departments.

"It cannot be spent unless an executive takes a decision to spend it," he said.

"We don't have what we would have over the course of the year, monitoring rounds where departments aren't spending money return it to the centre and that's redistributed to departments that need it.

"We don't have any of that because we haven't got an executive to take those decisions.

"Sammy Wilson and other DUP members are fully aware of this but they're prepared to go on to radio shows and television shows and tell lies to cover the fact they're preventing an executive."

Sammy Wilson said unallocated funds would have to cover budget shortfalls

Mr Wilson said the real battleground for dealing with the cost of living crisis was at Westminster.

"Even if the executive were up and running tomorrow, I guarantee they'd be saying that £270m has to be spent to deal with things which we cannot escape from," he said.

"Is he telling lies to somebody? Is he saying that there's inescapable pressures when there's not or is he promising money that he could spend when he knows he can't?"

Mr Wilson said his party had made a manifesto commitment that the executive would not sit until the Northern Ireland Protocol, which he said was adding to the cost of living, was dealt with.

The protocol is part of the Brexit deal that keeps Northern Ireland in the European Union's (EU) single market for goods, avoiding a hard border with the Republic of Ireland.

The arrangement ensured free trade could continue across the Irish land border, which is a sensitive issue because of the history of conflict in Northern Ireland.

But the protocol brought in some new checks on goods moving between Great Britain and Northern Ireland and has been criticised by unionist politicians.