I welcome the opportunity to contribute to today's debate on behalf of the Committee for Infrastructure. As we all know, the financial landscape in Northern Ireland has presented significant challenges to Departments to manage their day-to-day services. That is likely to continue to be the case. As Members are acutely aware, the restricted Budget settlement means that all Departments are operating within significant constraints, which means that tough decisions will be required to prioritise services and what can realistically be delivered.

Since resuming business, the Committee for Infrastructure has received oral evidence on a number of occasions to try to understand the Department's financial position and the associated challenges that it will face over this financial year. The Department for Infrastructure's overall resource allocation for 2024-25 is £559·5 million against forecast requirements of £676·6 million. The Department submitted bids totalling £1·2 billion for its capital budget and received an overall capital allocation of £820 million. The Committee is fully aware that the Department and its arm's-length bodies (ALBs) face significant challenges across many business areas, which will affect all of our day-to-day lives. Those business areas include the maintenance of our road network and water infrastructure and the delivery of public transport services across Northern Ireland. It is generally acknowledged that some of those key areas have already suffered from years of underfunding. That makes the current Budget position all the more concerning. Our water infrastructure, particularly our waste-water infrastructure, is in desperate need of a significant capital injection.

Through the price control 2021 (PC21) process, the Utility Regulator issued his determination of the financial resources that would be required to allow Northern Ireland Water to fulfil its responsibilities. During oral evidence to the Committee, the Utility Regulator noted that we are in a difficult situation with the lack of funding to achieve the PC21 goals. The Committee was also advised that the Utility Regulator had undertaken a midterm review to evaluate whether the initial determination remained realistic. We look forward to the outcome of that review. However, we must be mindful of the role that inflation will have had since that initial PC21 determination.

Our water system is at capacity in many areas, and, in others, it is in desperate need of being updated. That has social and economic impacts: it prevents the building of social housing, for example, and limits industrial and economic development. Investment is, therefore, essential, not only to support our existing economy but to grow capacity to help our economy to grow. Regrettably, however, the indicative allocation for this year falls short of the requirements identified by Northern Ireland Water.

Translink will also face significant challenges to ensure that it can support the transition towards a decarbonised public transport fleet and reduce the amount of harmful greenhouse gases that it produces. Both objectives require significant capital investment in our infrastructure, so it is essential that we move to a multi-year Budget. That would give more certainty to the Departments that typically incur higher capital spend. Capital projects are complex and expensive, so Departments need to know that funding will be available in future years to ensure that key capital projects can be delivered. Undoubtedly, the lack of a multi-year Budget constrains our ambitions to develop capital projects. It means that there is a lack of clarity on whether there will be sufficient capital funding in subsequent years as projects progress.

The Committee received oral evidence on the 2024-25 Budget allocations at its meeting on 29 May. The Committee was informed that ALBs and various parts of DFI had been asked to respond to their indicative allocations within four weeks, after which a consultation on the equality screening of the indicative allocations would be undertaken. Given that the Budget allocation falls short of the requirements identified by DFI, officials were asked for information on the options or measures that might need to be considered in order to live within budget.

In response, the Committee was advised that no detailed information on the options was available at that time and that that would be developed after responses on the indicative allocations were received from the respective parts of the Department and its ALBs.

The equality impact assessment (EQIA) consultation was subsequently launched on 11 June. It is disappointing that the Committee received no advance copy of the consultation document and was advised of its launch only on the day after publication. Notwithstanding the severely constrained time frames associated with the Budget, the Committee for Infrastructure has a statutory function to advise and assist the Minister. Without sight of the consultation document, the Committee was not aware of some of the measures being considered by the Department to reduce spending, such as the introduction of a concessionary fares application fee, before the document was made publicly available, despite specifically requesting the details of such measures during the oral evidence session. I conveyed my dissatisfaction with the situation when officials attended the Committee last week to give evidence on the June monitoring round.

The timescale for interaction between Committees and Departments details the process for engagement between Committees and their respective Departments in respect of consultations. The Committee expects that to be adhered to as far as possible, regardless of the circumstances. It therefore expects the Department to provide a copy of the report on the consultation, including details of any proposed changes to the indicative allocations, in advance of any final decisions by the Minister. I have previously stated that the Committee is keen to work collaboratively and constructively with the Minister and the Department. However, for that to occur, the Committee has to be extended the opportunity to contribute in a timely manner. The scarcity of resource makes the need for Committees to actively participate to ensure that public money is maximised all the more important.

The Committee will monitor the Department's performance through the in-year monitoring round process and the progress against its business plan objectives and its end-year out-turn. Furthermore, the Committee will wish to engage with the Department on its resource requirements for the next financial year at the earliest opportunity to enable it to engage more widely with stakeholders. It would be helpful, therefore, if the Minister could set out when she expects to be in a position to bring forward the next Budget and whether that is expected to be a single- or multi-year Budget.

I will now briefly speak in my capacity as an MLA for Fermanagh and South Tyrone. As I have said in the Chamber many times, infrastructure is the bedrock of our society. Providing better road networks, building better capacity in our waste water treatment and aiding better transport networks are key to unlocking more and better jobs, helping our economy, drawing down investment and securing even the most basic right in life: a roof over your head. Therefore, it must be taken seriously. A lack of investment in that area has a knock-on impact on other Ministries. Schools and new homes cannot be built, and, without updated planning policy or capacity in our Northern Ireland water systems, we run the risk of investors pulling out of Northern Ireland.

Delivering high-quality infrastructure will be the foundation of future growth across the United Kingdom of which we are a part. I want to see development of infrastructure projects and the ideas that are contained in the Union connectivity review. I know that my DUP colleagues have been working at Westminster to ensure that Northern Ireland has its fair share of funding to see those projects become a reality. There are clear synergies between the Northern Ireland connectivity review and the all-island rail review. The latter recommended that the Government provide funding and major project expertise for the purposes of delivering specific recommendations for cross-border rail. In particular, I want the Infrastructure Minister to ensure that Fermanagh is included in future rail development plans.

Furthermore, our planning system needs fundamental change. I know of investors who are hesitant about injecting cash into Northern Ireland for major developments or projects simply because of the time that it takes to get applications through the system. In the past few weeks, the Committee heard from the renewables sector, and it was clear that the planning system is hampering applications for wind farms, which could have an impact on our ability to reach our climate change targets. The Planning Appeals Commission, which is sponsored by the DOJ, is in a logjam, and there is an onus on the Justice Minister to look seriously at that. It must all be properly and adequately funded, and there must be a cross-departmental, non-siloed approach to ensure that our government policies and legislation strategies are funded and matched up so that we have delivery on the ground in every Constituency across Northern Ireland.

I pay tribute to my DUP colleagues, mainly my party leader, Gavin Robinson, who, for some time, has been raising the need for Northern Ireland to be adequately funded and to see an uplift. DUP MPs were doing that long before others. They often did so as lone voices. My party will continue that work, and, today, I support the Budget (No. 2) Bill.