Mike Nesbitt has refused to support Stormont’s latest spending allocations, saying he “could not look health service workers in the eye” if it meant they were paid less than their counterparts in Britain.
He insisted he is still £100 million short of the money he needs to make pay awards of at least 5.5% to all health staff.
The latest demonstration of internal dissent in the executive from an Ulster Unionist health minister came as fresh funding totalling £700m was announced.
Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald said departments would get a total of £631.5m resource spending along with £68 million of capital that will fund much-needed social housing and waste water infrastructure.
The allocations in the October monitoring round includes £124m from the autumn budget.
However, the minister warned that overall spending “still falls short of the pressures facing departments”.
“This means departments will have to make savings or reduce what they would want to do in order to live within their allocations,” she said.
Of the money allocated, £350m goes to health, £170 million to education, and £36 million to the Department of Justice.
A further £17 million has been earmarked to mitigate the impact of the Labour government’s withdrawal of the winter fuel payment.
Ms Archibald said bids for capital funding outstripped the available pot by at least “five times over”.
She said that while the allocations would go some way towards addressing spending pressures, a “significant gap” remained.
The Sinn Féin minister said overspending was not an option, as it would put at risk the £559 million which the Treasury has agreed to write-off.
“Given the continued pay and inflationary pressures and growing demands on our services this highlights the need for the transformation of our public services,” she said.
“The level of in-year funding reflects the reality of underfunding of public services following 14 years of austerity.”
In a statement, Mr Nesbitt said the Stormont executive’s budgetary decisions meant “there is insufficient funding to maintain pay parity for health service workers”.
“That is an extremely regrettable position with potentially serious consequences,” he said.
“I could not in all conscience support it today. I could not look health service workers in the eye and say I had put my name to pay funding that will be lower than England and Wales.”
First Minister Michelle O’Neill said it was unfortunate that Mr Nesbitt did not support the October monitoring round agreed by other ministers.
“I think that every minister around the Executive table recognised that it’s going to be challenging,” she said. “We don’t have enough money to do all the things that we would want to do, that we’ve prioritised, even collectively.”
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said the budget had created “very difficult decisions” for all ministers.
