Burnham pledges to get Stormont functioning with budget

The prime minister has pledged to get the Stormont government functioning properly with a budget.

Andy Burnham told MPs at his first Prime Minister's Questions that he had empowered the Northern Ireland Secretary, Sir Chris Bryant, to go into talks aimed at resolving the failure of the Executive to agree a budget.

Following the passing of the deadline recently Stormont officials have legal powers to spend up to 95% of last year's funding.

The secretary of state is expected to hold talks next week with the parties who are demanding increased funding.

Alliance MP for Lagan Valley Sorcha Eastwood told the prime minister the people of Northern Ireland are "absolutely scundered".

"At the moment, we have poisonous parading disputes and border poll spats.

"Meanwhile, the Northern Ireland Assembly has no budget," she added.

"Now, prime minister, whenever we met last week, I think there was an acknowledgement that we can either have an unreformed government or we can have sound public finances in Northern Ireland, but we cannot have both.

"Alliance have led the way on calls for changing our broken system of government in Northern Ireland. This is your chance to leave a legacy of functioning government in Northern Ireland. Will he act?"

Burnham replied: " I will work with her and her colleagues on precisely that.

"I was in Northern Ireland with the Northern Ireland secretary last week. Our first responsibility is to get Stormont government up and running and functioning properly with a budget.

"I've empowered the Northern Ireland secretary to go into talks to resolve that issue and the broader issues about reform, we can continue that conversation once we've got that in place."

The Executive failed to reach agreement on a draft budget which the Finance Minister John O'Dowd published in January.

There had been hope that Stormont could agree a multi-year budget for the first time in more than 10 years.

However, the draft was rejected by other parties with the deputy first minister, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)'s Emma Little Pengelly, describing it as "deeply flawed".

A one-year budget was also not agreed.

As a result, Stormont departments have been operating under emergency budgeting processes since the start of the financial year in April.

Sinn Féin later reached consensus with the other parties that more money would be needed from Westminster before a budget could be passed.

The NI Fiscal council warned however that even if a budget is agreed, Stormont will continue to experience structural financial problems.