Wilson warns of cuts 'across board'

By Chris Thornton
BBC Spotlight

Finance Minister Sammy Wilson has warned that Northern Ireland may suffer cuts across the entire spectrum of public spending.

Mr Wilson tells BBC Northern Ireland's Spotlight programme that he may be forced to "top slice" the 11 Stormont departments - distributing cuts equally - if the executive can't agree specific targets for reducing expenditure.

The finance minister gives his view as Northern Ireland faces a black hole of up to £370m in public finances, with the prospect of further cuts in public money to come after next year's general election.

The programme gives three Fantasy finance ministers the chance to make savings in Northern Ireland's budget.

Targeted cuts

They opt for some controversial choices - slashing money to quangos, closing hospitals and freezing the pay of thousands of public sector workers.

In the programme, Mr Wilson tells reporter Declan Lawn that other executive ministers have indicated "targeted cuts" to top slicing.

"But I suspect that it's because they hope that somebody else will be targeted rather than themselves," Mr Wilson says.

"If we can't get agreement on that, then it will simply be a case of top slicing and I don't think that that's the best way of doing it."

The executive hasn't reached a consensus on cuts yet - and in the programme Mr Wilson and Health Minister Michael McGimpsey dispute whether the health budget can be sliced back.

Victor Hewitt, director of the Economic Research Institute of Northern Ireland, says targeted cuts make more sense than top slicing.

"Some things are of higher priority than others and what one should really do logically is to look at the lower priority things as the first port of call if you have to make cuts," he said.

Spotlight is on BBC One on Tuesday at 22:40 GMT.