WEST Belfast MLA Pat Sheehan has welcomed an allocation of £170 million for education.
Stormont's Finance Minister, Sinn Féin's Caoimhe Archibald announced the additional funding as part of the October monitoring round allocations.
Sheehan, Sinn Féin's Education spokesperson, said: “I want to commend Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald’s decision to prioritise strengthening our education system with a funding injection of £170 million.
“The education minister must now prioritise delivering on the most important issues including fair pay for workers, transforming childcare, supporting children with special educational needs and addressing educational underachievement.
“Sinn Féin will continue to press the British Treasury for fairer funding to enable us to get on with the job of delivering a stronger education system that gives every child the best start to life.”
The Finance Minister said that while the additional funding to Stormont announced in the UK government's Autumn Statement is to be welcomed "it still falls short of the pressures facing departments".
She added: “£17 million has been allocated to the Department for Communities for winter fuel support. While this funding cannot mitigate fully against the bad decisions taken at Westminster it shows our determination to do what we can within the constrained funding available to us to provide a level of mitigation from the detrimental impacts of Winter Fuel Payment changes on vulnerable older people this winter.”
Total departmental allocations including both Resource and Capital funding being made are:
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs - Resource £3.7 million/Capital £2.1million
Department for Communities Resource £28.6 million/Capital £25 million
Department for the Economy - Resource £8.6 million/Capital £0.2 million
Department of Education - Resource £171million
Department of Finance - no allocation
Department of Health – Resource £350 million
Department for Infrastructure Resource £22.8 million / Capital £39.6 million
Department of Justice – Resource £39.3 million
The Executive Office - Resource £7.0 million / Capital £1.4million
