Farren says Executive will deliver with public service funding

Finance Minister, Dr Sean Farren has welcomed the additional money for public services in Northern Ireland, as announced yesterday by Chancellor Gordon Brown in his Spending Review.

The province has been targeted with an extra £1.2 billion in funding over the next four years, as part of a £90 billion package for the UK as a whole.

Dr Farren said that the Executive would rise to the challenges of delivering the best possible public services, and said that he was glad that the Chancellor has found more money than was expected to provide for public services.

He commented: "Preparatory work on our own budget is already well underway and will now take full account of the additional resources available. The Executive will publish its draft budget in September indicating how we propose to allocate resources to services here in line with the priorities of our Programme for Government. We have already established as priority areas health, Education and Infrastructure."

He added: "The best way we can pursue the interests of the public here is to make the best possible use of the money that is available: we will secure value for money; explore innovative developments in service delivery and management; and, where necessary, challenge old priorities. Delivering reform must be the centre of our attention."

Looking ahead to the coming Budget discussions in Northern Ireland, Dr Farren went on to say that the Executive would be carefully considering how best to fulfil objectives. He continued: "A spending review should mean change - changing priorities to take account of what is needed and wanted most by our society. This may mean some hard choices, if resources are to be used as effectively as possible."

The Executive has also commissioned a wide-ranging series of Needs and Effectiveness Evaluations to assess the need for expenditure on its programmes and the effectiveness of existing spending. The Finance Minister added: "These reviews will be released to the Assembly as they are completed. They provide us with the widest possible range of information on how effectively we are spending money and they will be invaluable in informing the Executive as we tackle the difficult task of dividing up the resources available in the budget.

"Our overall aim is to provide high quality public services in order to ensure a healthier, better educated and economically more successful society, all of which are the benefits the public wants to see flowing from devolution and from the Good Friday Agreement."

(CL)