Newton Emerson: Sinn Féin and the DUP are happier arguing over a parade than agreeing a budget

Stormont was about to have an emergency budget imposed on it by London before the Drumcree dispute suddenly changed the subject. The financial crisis continues to fester and will have to be addressed within weeks.Although Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) did not deliberately engineer a Drumcree distraction, they are clearly happier arguing over a parade than confronting their failure to agree a budget.The other two Executive parties, Alliance and the Ulster Unionist Party, share the blame. Sinn Féin’s Minister for Finance in Northern Ireland, John O’Dowd, is responsible for preparing a budget. DUP ministers have been most vocal in rejecting it. However, all four parties agree that the problem is underfunding, and London simply needs to give them more.Their agreement on this has only grown as they have fallen out over everything else. All hands to the begging bowl is their final point of unanimity.READ MOREYet Stormont has plenty of money, more than ever before and enough to meet its needs according to its own financial experts. What it lacks is the ability to say no to anyone – a historic irony.Budgets are meant to span the assembly’s five-year mandate, but since 2016 there have only been one-year budgets due to collapses and disruptions to devolution. Five were agreed by the Executive; another five were imposed via the Northern Ireland Office.This has kept the lights on, but made it impossible to plan investment and reform. In the health service, which accounts for half the budget, managers blame this for failure despite spending 52 per cent more a head than in England. Other services are similar.The normalisation of ultra-short-termism has entrenched financial irresponsibility. What began as finger-crossing and can-kicking has descended over the past two years into wilful overspending, mainly on public sector pay increases, while hoping something turns up. London has a track record of bailing Stormont out of a crisis. Although conditions are always attached to use the money wisely, this has incentivised Stormont to spend its way into a crisis.[ Susan Sarandon and Noel Gallagher among artists calling for independent Drumcree mediatorOpens in new window ]When O’Dowd began planning a multiyear budget last year, he was forced to consider an unorthodox time frame due to the most recent collapse of devolution.He proposed a three-year budget, covering the final year of this mandate and the first two years of the next.Powersharing means parties might as well plan for the next Government as they are all almost certain to be in it. But only if they can make any plan stick.The budget should have been in place by April, the start of this Assembly’s last financial year. It has still not been agreed. The Executive parties have only agreed to transform a standoff among themselves into a standoff with the British government. They argued that Scotland and Wales are funded above their official level of need due to legacy problems with budget formulas, so Stormont should be overfunded as well.London is understandably unmoved by this line of reasoning, as are Edinburgh and Cardiff.Hilary Benn, the Northern secretary until July, asked the Executive to “meet the Government halfway” on cuts and revenue-raising.If Stormont was capable of cuts and revenue-raising, it would not be in this position.[ O’Neill accused of choosing politics over ministerial responsibilities in Drumcree standoffOpens in new window ]Chris Bryant, the new Northern Secretary, made a “final offer” last month of £1.5 billion spread over three years, adding about 3 per cent to Stormont’s basic grant.But the Executive has already committed itself to £1.6 billion of overspending this year alone. Closing the gap would involve more political pain than most of its parties and their fragile relationships could bear – although Alliance has called this week to admit defeat and accept Bryant’s offer.When Stormont fails to agree a budget, the law allows each department to authorise up to 95 per cent of last year’s spending. This keeps the lights on for the first half or so of the financial year, but taking current inflation into account it means an 8 per cent real terms cut that is beginning to cause serious difficulties.Before Drumcree intervened, Bryant had set a strict deadline of October 1st to agree a budget or have one imposed. If he does still have to impose a budget, it will be another one-year wonder – a simple set of departmental spending limits with a lecture attached to do better next time, the most London feels it can do to intrude on devolution. That can only further entrench the Executive’s short-termism and fiscal delinquency. It should be clear by now to everyone that bailing out Stormont is sinking it.[ Drumcree is theatre of the absurd, straight from Monty Python’s Ministry of Silly WalksOpens in new window ]The British and Irish governments have reportedly discussed reforms of powersharing in advance of next May’s elections, including removing certain unionist and nationalist vetoes and equalising the titles of the first and deputy first ministers.That will all be beside the point without a fundamental review of Stormont’s attitude to money.