The speech made by Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, on 4 February 2025.
I am delighted to be speaking here today, in these wonderful surroundings. My thanks to Ulster University; indeed The Times’ UK University of the Year 2024, no less.
This institution does so much fantastic work and is truly “a force for good in fostering peace, prosperity and cohesion”, as the judges of that illustrious award so eloquently described you. And it has been a privilege for me to meet some of your remarkable students this morning.
This week, of course, we are marking the one year anniversary of the return of devolved government in Northern Ireland.
But before I come to that, I just want to say this about Storm Eowyn.
At its peak, over 280,000 properties were without electricity including acute hospitals and other essential services. But since the winds abated, there has been an extraordinary effort to deal with the damage, to clear fallen trees and to get electricity supplies up and running again.
And I know that lots of people have worked really hard over long hours to restore services and I’m glad to say that NIE Networks is now very nearly there with the last electricity reconnections, and it has been a long time for some people to wait.
It’s been a team effort which shows the strength of the United Kingdom in offering practical support. When trouble strikes, we come to the aid of each other.
The restoration of power-sharing a year ago was a significant moment. It followed yet another unacceptably long time without a functioning government.
When I was first appointed as shadow Secretary of State in September 2023, I said to Chris Heaton-Harris that my priority was to see the Executive restored.
I want to pay tribute to Chris for the pivotal role he played in bringing back the institutions, to the leadership of the DUP for deciding to go back into powersharing, and to them and the leadership of Sinn Fein, the Alliance Party and the UUP for the great start tht the Executive has made. We all hope that its restoration is for good – the good of the people of Northern Ireland.
By its very nature, power-sharing is difficult – very difficult – but just over a quarter of a century ago we saw extraordinary political leadership make it possible.
Courage and compromise triumphed over bitter stalemate, as political leaders agreed the principles of power-sharing that endure to this day.
I have great faith in Northern Ireland’s system of government. Indeed, there were long periods of relative Executive stability prior to 2017 in which we saw the devolution of policing and justice, and the establishment of the PSNI – which today enjoys significant cross-community support. Who could have imagined that 26 years ago? It’s a tribute to the work that Naomi Long and her predecessors have done in the role of Justice Minister.
There was also significant economic growth, helped by Northern Ireland’s success in attracting inward investment. All examples of what can be achieved by sharing power.
The people of Northern Ireland need and deserve an Executive that works for them all the time, along of course with an Opposition that holds the Executive to account, an important role being undertaken by Matthew O’Toole and the SDLP. And it is vital that all of us do all we can to ensure that the stability of devolved government endures.
We have to put the days of collapse behind us and move forward.
Now I say that not because I am worried about a return to instability. On the contrary, I have been so impressed by the leadership shown by Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly as First and deputy First Minister.
The Executive has worked constructively together to negotiate an Interim Fiscal Framework, publish a Fiscal Sustainability Plan, bring forward a strategy to end violence against women and girls and a childcare and early learning plan, and agree a draft Programme for Government.
It’s been a successful start, and I believe the conditions are now in place for the Executive to grasp the opportunities that beckon for Northern Ireland.
The largest budget settlement since devolution with a funding formula that now reflects Northern Ireland’s level of need.
Certainty, after the uncertainty that immediately followed the EU referendum in 2016, about Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market.
Advantageous trading arrangements through the Windsor Framework, which can help draw in foreign direct investment.
And finally – after too many years in which Northern Ireland was too often treated by the previous government as an afterthought – this Executive has a partner in this UK Government that is committed to working together to generate investment and economic growth and to help improve the delivery of public services.
We all understand the scale of the challenge and the unique circumstances of Northern Ireland, where poverty, paramilitarism and the past are entwined. And where the pain and trauma wrought by the terrible violence that shook this place continue – for many – to be deeply felt.
And all our thoughts this week, and in the weeks to come, are with those family members taking part in the commemorative hearings in the Inquiry into the Omagh Bombing – a monstrous and despicable act of terrorist violence.
We now must all play our part in building a more inclusive society which is at peace with itself as it looks to the future.
And this is the moment for Northern Ireland’s devolved government to address the concerns that citizens have about their lives and their wish to see public services improve.
My first six months or so in office as Secretary of State has reminded me about what Mo Mowlam once said:
“People working together can overcome many obstacles, often within themselves, and by doing so can make the world a better place.”
We are all aware of the acute challenges which we are grappling with right across the United Kingdom.
Today I want to talk about three of these.
First, reform and delivery of public services.
Second, how to ensure the smooth flow of goods across the UK, while seeking to deepen our trade ties with Europe.
And third, the need for sustained and sustainable economic growth, which is essential if we are to see raised living standards, and more money in people’s pockets on which subject, today the UK Government has announced a 6.7% increase in the National Living Wage from 1 April, which will benefit millions of people across the UK, including in Northern Ireland.
The challenge for public services is particularly acute in Northern Ireland, and nowhere is this more urgent or obvious than in health.
The facts are frankly shocking.
Waiting time performance against cancer care targets continues to deteriorate, corridor care is becoming more frequent and it is striking how many people in Northern Ireland are now going private.
More than a quarter of people in Northern Ireland are on a waiting list. That is more than double the figure in England.
53% of people waiting for a first appointment with a consultant are waiting for more than a year in Northern Ireland.
In England, that figure is 4%. That’s right, 53% compared to just 4%.
That’s why the First Minister recently described the state of the health service as “dire and diabolical”.
I agree. And this is despite UK Treasury data showing that spending per head on health is nearly £300 a year higher in Northern Ireland than it is in England.
It is absolutely not that health and social care staff are somehow not doing all they can. On the contrary, they are working really, really hard to treat patients, but they are doing so in a system that clearly isn’t working.
And why isn’t it working? Because – over many years – the decisions necessary for systemic and not piecemeal reform to the health and social care system in Northern Ireland simply haven’t been taken.
Now the Health Minister Mike Nesbitt is developing a long term plan to stabilise, reconfigure and reform the health service. This is really encouraging and I sincerely wish him well.
And the challenge now for the Executive is to take the difficult collective decisions that are required to enable this change to succeed.
Doing so is now unavoidable.
The task of transforming public services won’t be without cost. I get that. And I know that talk of transformation of public services inevitably leads to the issue of funding.
So, allow me to say this.
The Autumn Budget provided £18.2 billion for the Executive in 2025/2026 – the largest settlement in real terms in the history of devolution.
This includes a £1.5 billion increase through the Barnett formula, with £1.2 billion for day-to-day spending and £270 million for capital investment.
The independent Northern Ireland Fiscal Council has calculated that the relative need in Northern Ireland is 24% more per head than in England for equivalent spending. This rightly reflects the greater needs that there are in Northern Ireland.
That is why, as part of the restoration agreement last year, a structural change was made to funding by adding a 24% needs-based factor to the Barnett formula, so as to ensure the Executive gets the level of funding it needs, now and in the future.
This financial year and next financial year, funding for Northern Ireland will actually exceed this level.
I frequently hear it said, however, that more funding is required from the UK Government and that that is the reason why public services are in such a state. But given the needs-based formula that is now in place, and given the increase in funding that the government has given, a lack of funding is not the impediment to public service transformation.
The real impediment has been the failure to reform the system. The many missed opportunities to take decisions, or to apply lessons, from other parts of the UK where reform has happened.
Of course, this has at times been down to there being no Executive in place to take those decisions, which is why it’s essential that the institutions do their job every day of the year.
At other times, there has simply been a lack of agreement among Executive Ministers on the steps that need to be taken, or on the allocation of resources, or on the revenue that needs to be raised.
I believe strongly in devolution in Northern Ireland – where decisions are made as close to the people they affect as possible, by the representatives the people have chosen.
It is only right that the Executive makes decisions about its own spending and revenue raising priorities.
However, it must take responsibility for balancing its budget and living within its means. Just as all other governments must.
Now, the Executive has nine priorities set out in its draft Programme for Government, and the work of this UK Government is guided by our five Missions and our Plan for Change. These objectives are in many ways complementary, and I firmly believe the two need to work together.
Since Fleur Anderson and I took office, we’ve been clear that we want to help ensure that the Executive has the support it needs.
We want the UK Government to be an active partner and to encourage greater collaboration and sharing of expertise, so helping Northern Ireland to make progress for itself.
And it is in this spirit that the Public Sector Transformation Board was conceived of, as part of the restoration deal, to bring together experts from across different sectors, and to enable the sharing of best practice from across the UK to support change.
We have also made available £235m of funding for projects proposed by the Executive departments to transform the delivery of public services.
I look forward to seeing the first tranche of this funding being allocated soon, followed, I hope, by the Executive -and I want to say that Caoimhe Archibald has done a great job as Finance Minister – bringing forward plans in the Budget for how the Executive will deploy its resources to deliver the wider transformation that is so urgently required in the health service.
Let me now turn to the second matter I want to address.
This UK Government will always uphold – in good faith – the Good Friday Agreement and the principle of consent on which it rests. And for as long as the people of Northern Ireland wish it to be so, Northern Ireland’s place in the Union is secure.
The task now for us as politicians is to ensure that the Union continues to improve the lives of all communities, regardless of their constitutional ambition.
Now, of course, I couldn’t come here today and speak about the restoration of the Northern Ireland institutions without recognising the issues that led to them not functioning in the first place, and the arrangements that enabled them to get back up and running.
The concerns that people in Northern Ireland – particularly but not exclusively those from a Unionist background – had about the old Northern Ireland protocol were genuine. I shared many of them. It proved to be unworkable and damaging, and I supported the Windsor Framework that replaced it.
The Framework brought significant improvements in the arrangements in Northern Ireland, thanks to the pragmatic approach the EU took in the negotiations.
It recognised that goods staying within the UK’s internal market should not be subject to the full panoply of EU rules and checks.
It ensured that medicines continue to be available on a UK-wide basis, and it enshrined an important new democratic safeguard in the form of the Stormont Brake.
The Brake has received quite a bit of attention of late. There are some who have said that because the outcome recently was not as they wished, it doesn’t have any value.
That isn’t true.
The main criterion for use of the Brake – namely, that the proposed new EU rule would have a significant and lasting impact on communities in Northern Ireland – and that is quite a high bar – is clearly set out in law. The fact that this bar was not met on this occasion, does not have any bearing on whether it might be met on any future occasion. Why? Because each case must be considered on its merits. That’s the responsibility on me in law.
But the Brake notification by MLAs – which reflected genuine concerns – did lead to a clear commitment by the UK Government to take the steps necessary to avoid new regulatory barriers in respect of chemicals. Which was the issue that had given rise to the application.
I think this was a positive outcome, and precisely what the Brake was designed to do.
More generally, I am not going to rehash old debates about Brexit. My views during the referendum and subsequently are fairly well known.
But I hope that the experience of what has happened since the referendum taught us all something important. And that is that we should beware those offering simplistic soundbites rather than grappling with difficult and complex questions, like the one which lies at the heart of this debate. How do you deal with trade between two countries with different rules but an open border between them?
Serious leadership and the questions it has to deal with – such as that provided by those sitting around the Executive table, or operating in constructive opposition in the Assembly, or by the UK Government – requires serious answers.
And when it became clear that the Windsor Framework was not the final word, through painstaking months, the Democratic Unionist Party worked through the remaining issues to secure some important new commitments in the Safeguarding the Union Command Paper.
They engaged in the detail and achieved changes for their constituents when it might have been politically safer or easier to demand the impossible from the sidelines.
Some others did take that latter path – I would say with absolutely no benefit to anyone that they represented.
So, I commend the role that the leader of the DUP, Gavin Robinson, and the now deputy First Minister, played in that process – and for the courage and commitment to Northern Ireland that they demonstrated in leading their party back into the Executive.
And for my part, let me say that I am committed to continuing to work in good faith to implement the basis on which devolution was restored.
We have clearly made good progress:
- an Independent Monitoring Panel is in place to report on how it’s going on meeting the new Internal Market Guarantee
- every public authority implementing the Windsor Framework must now look to statutory guidance on the importance of Northern Ireland’s place in the Union in discharging their duties
- every Government department must set out the impact of major regulatory changes on the functioning of the UK’s internal market, including Northern Ireland.
- an Independent Review has been established recognising that the democratic vote to continue the Framework’s application was not supported by Unionist MLAs
- we have new working groups on Veterinary Medicines and horticulture up and running – acknowledging that there is still important work to be done
- we will shortly establish Intertrade UK.
But most important of all, goods are flowing back and forth between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
This is a process, it is not a destination.
And my commitment, as we continue to take forward Safeguarding the Union, is to continue working with all parts of the community and with all the political parties, to address concerns and problems.
It certainly won’t always be smooth, but I am really grateful to all those who are willing to engage in the hard slog each day to improve things further for the people of Northern Ireland.
And as we honour the commitments we have made in the Windsor Framework, as we must, this Government is also working to secure a stronger and better relationship with the European Union.
An SPS and veterinary agreement just to take that example would produce tangible benefits for businesses and traders in Northern Ireland and indeed across the UK by helping animal and plant products to flow freely across the Irish Sea. So there is light at the end of this tunnel.
Beyond strengthening Northern Ireland’s place in the Internal Market, investments being made by this UK Government will help to strengthen Northern Ireland’s economy.
We all know the particular challenges facing the economy in Northern Ireland, not least on productivity, but Northern Ireland’s economic output is now 9.7% above its pre-pandemic level, which is significantly higher than the rest of the UK.
In the last decade the total number of employee jobs is up 15%. And as we know Northern Ireland now has the lowest level of unemployment in the UK.
I am determined to ensure that Northern Ireland benefits from UK Government initiatives designed to generate economic growth and power the green transition.
Central to this will be our new modern industrial strategy – Invest 2035 – and our commitment to make the whole of the UK a clean energy superpower with GB Energy, a publicly owned company, at its heart.
We will work closely with the Executive and the other devolved governments on our 10-year Infrastructure Strategy and the National Wealth Fund to ensure the benefits are felt UK-wide.
Alongside the Industrial Strategy, we will mobilise billions of pounds of investment in the UK’s world-leading industries, including Northern Ireland’s strengths in areas like fin-tech and the creative industries.
I was delighted that last month, Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, announced that Belfast is one of this Government’s priority regions for the Creative Industries, and this Spring will see the full opening of Studio Ulster – a truly unique facility that will not just support the growing creative industry in Northern Ireland, but will also take it into the next era of screen innovation, making it a global player in performance technology. Fleur and I had a sneak preview before we came into this hall today, and I’m looking forward to visiting the new Studio Ulster itself.
And of course, the Belfast City Deal has helped to fund Studio Ulster.
And as we move full steam ahead with the City and Growth Deals right across Northern Ireland, these will demonstrate the significant impact of a partnership that has been developed between the Executive, the UK Government, local councils and businesses to make things happen.
It is also fantastic that shipbuilding is returning to Belfast. As announced in December, a commercial deal has been reached that will see Navantia UK – a specialist in shipbuilding – purchase Harland and Wolff, thus ensuring the delivery of the Ministry of Defence’s three Fleet Solid Support Ships.
This deal, which will protect around 500 jobs in Belfast, demonstrates the Government’s unwavering commitment to UK shipbuilding, and to Harland and Wolff.
Throughout the process, the Government worked with devolved governments, local MPs and the relevant trade unions, on the commitments on jobs that are part of the deal.
And let’s not forget all of the other strengths of Northern Ireland. Farming, its fantastic universities, including this wonderful institution we’re meeting in today, the voluntary and community sector, advanced manufacturing, thriving life sciences, and a world-leading cybersecurity industry which, with UK Government investment here in Northern Ireland, is so important for UK-wide national resilience.
Investment is vital for Northern Ireland, but to maximise potential it needs to get its infrastructure right. To take just one example, last year NI Water confirmed that there are 19,000 applications for development that cannot go ahead due to the outdated and at capacity sewage network.
And, of course, political stability is crucial to encourage investors to put their money into Northern Ireland.
As I look at all of this, what strikes me most forcefully about Northern Ireland is the energy, the enterprise, the imagination and the innovation of the people and businesses and the local authorities and the politicians that I have met.
To take just one example of a firm I visited in October – I could tell you of many others – Edge Innovate designs, manufactures and exports its material handling and recycling equipment – and you have to see the size of it, some of those bits of kit are enormous- from their factory in Dungannon all over the world.
It was so impressive, so let us all tell their and other stories of Northern Ireland’s success.
Because measured by what went before, the last 26 years really have been a success. Your success. Northern Ireland has been transformed.
So, as we look towards the 30th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in 2028, I am so encouraged that a majority of people here continue to view power-sharing as the best form of government.
Of course, there is a debate about reform of the institutions – it would be surprising if there were not – but my view is this.
Just as it took agreement between the parties to establish power-sharing in the first place, so it will require agreement between the parties to reform the current arrangements. And the task for now for today is to make them work for the people of Northern Ireland.
So in doing so, let us take inspiration from the words of the great George Mitchell, I had the privilege of meeting him a couple of months ago, who – on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the Agreement – said:
“The answer is not perfection, or permanence. It is now, as it was then, for the current and future leaders of Northern Ireland to act with courage and vision, as their predecessors did 25 years ago. To find workable answers to the daily problems of the present.”
That is the responsibility that each of us takes on when we stand for elected office, whoever we are, and when the people say they want us to get on with the task.
Let me assure you. The Executive will be in the lead but it will not be alone.
And at this moment in history and at this time, I believe that Northern Ireland has all it needs to be a success and to be a beacon of hope to the world by showing that peace is truly the foundation on which progress is built.
