Infrastructure Minister has welcomed the Department's
Draft 2025-26 Budget outcome, which is in an increase in
comparison to previous years and reflective of the historic
underfunded baseline that the Department has faced for many
years.
Minister Kimmins was speaking as the Department's Draft 2025-26
Budget Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA)
consultation launches for a 12-week period.
She said: “I welcome increased funding in both my
resource and capital budgets which reflects the importance of
infrastructure for our society and will help support the
commitments within the Programme for Government to
deliver positive change for workers, families and
communities.
"This draft budget represents an improved position in
comparison to previous years. However, the draft
budget outcome does not provide funding for everything that the
Department and our Arms-Length Bodies want to do which means we
must work together to prioritise our spend and be efficient in
the delivery of our services.”
The Department's draft resource budget outcome is £633.3m and the
draft capital 2025-26 budget outcome is £932.7m, of which £390.7m
is ringfenced for specific schemes. This allocation will enable
the Department to meet its highest priority measures and could
allow an increase in the level of service that has been provided
in its essential services such as an increase from the limited
level of service for essential road maintenance and flood risk
management and allow progress to be made on key infrastructure
schemes and capital maintenance of vital infrastructure.
Concluding, the Minister said: “I have not taken
any final decisions on how the draft budget will be spent,
therefore, I encourage everyone to provide their comments to
the EQIA. I want to continue to work to stabilise the
Department's finances to make the absolute most of our
resources. Getting infrastructure right can deliver real
benefits for our citizens, communities and the economy.”
The consultation period begins today and ends on 4 June
2025. The link to the consultation is here - https://www.infrastructure-ni.gov.uk/consultations/dfi-draft-budget-2025-26-equality-impact-assessment-consultation
