Finance officials in the North of Ireland are working directly with the UK Treasury to establish a method to allow households here to receive extra financial support to pay energy bills with a working Executive, Finance Minister Conor Murphy has said.
Speaking on the BBC Radio Ulster, Mr Murphy said households could receive confirmation of the support in the coming months if an Executive is established “over the next week or two”.
It’s after a £15 billion package of new measures to tackle soaring prices across the UK was announced by the British Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Thursday.
However, the UK Treasury says the current political instability in Northern Ireland means that it may not make the payment through the normal Barnett Consequential, the mechanism used to calculate spending in the devolved regions, to the North of Ireland, as it had previously done with a £200 energy loan payment scheme.
Mr Murphy said his officials are working with the Treasury to ensure people can receive the money without “going through the normal system”.
All households in Great Britain will receive a grant which will reduce energy bills by £400 from October.
To do the same, Stormont would normally receive proportional funding — £165m in this case — as a result of Barnett consequentials.
There will also be a one-off payment of £650 to the lowest income families that will be paid in two instalments.
The first of those payments will be made in July with the second following in the autumn.
Mr Murphy said the process to establish how the funding could be allocated in the absence of an executive will last a “number of weeks”.
“The Treasury recognise that if this money comes over, and it’s badly needed for people in the autumn as a Barnett consequential, if the DUP continue at that stage to be frustrating the ability to set up an Executive and get a government going here, then it will sit with all of the now £435 million that are unable to be spent because we need an executive to work with them,” he said.
Pressure has been mounting on the DUP, who have so far said they will not form an Executive unless their concerns over the Protocol are addressed.
Sinn Fein has recalled the Assembly to meet on Monday in a bid to restore power-sharing and distribute to struggling households a total of £435 million Mr Murphy said exists in unspent frozen funds that has built up since the Executive collapsed.
The North of Ireland would also receive £14 million as a Barnett consequential, from extra money announced by the Chancellor for the Household Support Fund in England, Mr Murphy said.
However, he added that this additional money would need executive approval before it could be allocated.
“The simplest and safest way to get this money is to have an executive formed,” he said. “I hope that we on Monday have another attempt to do that and I hope that the DUP will agree to do that.
“It’s a conversation that’s just beginning but the intent for it is for it to be done and dusted as soon as possible,” he said. The DoF wants to offer “certainty” for people ahead of the expected payment arrival date.
Many households are experiencing “a severe degree of anxiety”.
“If we had an executive in place in the next week or two, we could get this sorted out very quickly,” added the Finance Minister.
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