The public services of Northern Ireland “at risk of collapse” | Northern Ireland

The public services of Northern Ireland, including hospitals, schools and police, are “paralyzed” by the lack of funding, putting on the quality of life for many people, a report of a government committee has ended.

The Select Committee of Northern Ireland has found that patients awaiting more than 12 hours were seen in the departments of accidents and emergency and mental health needs of 40% more than any other part of the United Kingdom. The hospital waiting lists are among the worst in the country.

His investigation was also said that Northern Ireland “recently held the world record for prescribing the largest number of antidepressants for head of the population”. He also discovered that children with special needs were waiting for support for more than a year.

The Budget for Northern Ireland Police The service has been static since 2010, despite the special challenges it has to face including the intake of crossed community and the efforts to eliminate paramilitarism, one of the latest vestiges of the problems.

A witness, the Law Society of Northern Ireland, said that public services are “at risk of collapse”.

Former deputy Stephen Farry, a co -director of the Strategic Political Unit of Ulster University, told the Committee that it was essential that the political classes in London understood how much they were in bad public services in Ni compared to Great Britain.

He said: “The scope of the crisis is much bigger”.

The president of the Committee, Tonia Antoniazzi, said: “The crisis that afflicts public services in Northern Ireland has gone too long with the paralyzing effects of the sub -financing that hit the daily life of people through the communities. The current approach of the hand to mouth when it comes to funding was often too little, too late.”

The Committee asks the government to guarantee funding for the next tax year from 2026 to 2027 is “according to the level of need for Ni”.

Northern Ireland has the highest public expenditure per person in the United Kingdom, but increases minimal revenues per person, according to what reported. It is mainly based on what is known as a “block grant” assigned to the donated administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

According to the so -called Barnett formula used to calculate the loans, each nation receives the same pound for an increase in the pound in the per capita funding of national funding. So, for example, if education in England is £ 100 each, devolved governments must also obtain that level of financing.

In recognition of the terrible state of the public services of Northern Ireland, the previous government has collected funding to give a garment in the public sector of Ni £ 124.

The Committee observed that the research was conducted to see if this had to be reported again.

“During the investigation of our predecessor committee in 2023-2024, he heard that the financing and delivery of public services in Northern Ireland were under enormous pressure. A year onwards, little seems to have changed,” he said.

When the sharing of power resumed in 2024 after a 24 -month break, the government provided a 3.3 billion pound package, but as part of the settlement the Stormont government was encouraged to collect more revenues for public services.

The committee investigation noted that this proved to be “politically difficult” with few options open to the devoted government.