Aengus Ó Snodaigh (Dublin South Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Mention was made of the new mechanisms for dealing with the legacy of the past and it is to be welcomed that there is progress on that issue. I do not know whether the Minister has had any contact with his counterparts since the Tories announced their budget, in which they cut the block grant to the Assembly by €1.5 billion. Based on the trajectory from the budget, there will be further cuts of €2.4 billion in the North, which will undermine any possibility of achieving a sustainable economy in the future and undermines the stability of one of the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement and other agreements in the Stormont Assembly. What steps has the Minister taken to specifically ensure the transfer of fiscal powers to the Assembly to allow it to deal in the future with crises of the type we have seen in recent months as a result of not having control over its own income or the ability to change welfare rates, which is done by diktat from Westminster?

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