TRADE unions urged Stormont yesterday to agree a fair budget or face an intensifying programme of industrial action.

The warning comes as the Northern Ireland Executive is now five months into the latest financial year without an agreed budget.

This means that Stormont officials currently have legal powers to spend up to 95 per cent of last year’s funding in their departments.

The parties represented in the Northern Ireland Assembly have all said they need more funding from London to agree a budget. However, while talks with the Treasury have been going on behind the scenes, no progress to secure further money appears to have been made.

During Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s first official visit to Belfast last week, he said he wanted to help “move things forward” with regard to solving Stormont’s budget crisis, but he remained in “listening mode.”

In January 2024, the unions co-ordinated the largest walkout in decades during a period of political collapse, with 100,000 public-sector workers estimated to have taken part in rallies across Northern Ireland.

Leaders of the trade union movement in the six counties met this week to discuss what they have termed “growing discontent among workers” in both the private and public sectors at the inability of the Stormont executive and the British government to agree a budget for Northern Ireland.

Irish Congress of Trade Unions assistant general secretary Gerry Murphy said they had previously “forced the political class to face up to its responsibilities” and would “do so again.”

He explained: “In January 2024, trade union members across Northern Ireland took part in the largest day of co-ordinated industrial action witnessed here for decades.

“That day marked the culmination of months of strikes and stoppages across all sectors of our economy.

“This action was necessary because of political stalemate, the absence of a budget and the refusal of the UK government to provide adequate funding for Northern Ireland.

“Here we are, over two and a half years later, and we are met with the very same conditions. While the executive has been restored, we have no Northern Ireland budget due to political stalemate.

“A fair and enduring settlement from Westminster is the only route to delivering a fair and enduring budget at Stormont.”