First Minister rejects charge Executive unwilling to make hard calls on finance

Stormont’s First Minister has rejected the charge that the new Executive is unwilling to make hard decisions as she vowed to continue the fight to secure more Treasury money for Northern Ireland.

Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly both called for a “level playing field” as they insisted the region was underfunded compared to other parts of the UK.

After attending a meeting of the ministerial executive at Stormont Castle, the devolved administration’s joint leaders again rejected the demand from the UK Government for the Executive to raise an additional £113 million of its own revenues in the coming financial year.

The Treasury has offered to write off almost £600 million