NI secretary arrives at Stormont ahead of budget meetings

The Northern Ireland secretary will be in Northern Ireland later for further talks with executive parties to try to break the budget deadlock.

Sir Chris Bryant, who has insisted there is no more money available beyond the £1.5bn the government has already offered, has accused executive ministers of being financially "irresponsible".

He held brief virtual discussions with parties last Friday, but it is understood that Thursday's discussions will involve a series of meetings between Sir Chris and party leaders.

The executive has maintained it cannot balance its books without more support from London.

The current package would be split into three tranches with £525m available this year, but the Stormont parties said that still falls short of what they require.

Without an agreed budget, public sector workers in Northern Ireland cannot receive long-awaited pay awards that they are entitled to, in line with their counterparts in other parts of the UK.

Hospital doctors have announced they will strike next month over the issue, while the Royal College of Nursing is also balloting for industrial action.

At Stormont's finance committee on Wednesday, the Department of Finance's top civil servant Neil Gibson confirmed that it is now too late for any civil service pay settlement before Christmas because of the ongoing lack of a budget.

"We're too late in the year for Christmas for the sector I'm in," he told assembly members.

Sir Chris has suggested the absolute deadline for reaching a deal is January because at that point the money available to departments to spend under emergency arrangements will run out.

Stormont departments are facing a shortfall of up to £1.6bn, according to a spending watchdog.

Last month, Sir Chris made an offer of a financial package worth about £1.5bn over the next three years.

But executive parties said that did not go far enough and they have argued that significant gaps remain before they can agree to a deal that would allow them to set a budget.

With no agreed budget, public services have been operating under contingency arrangements allowing departments to spend up to 95% of last year's funding.