Stormont’s Health Minister Robin Swann has refused to rule out resigning if a budget agreed by the powersharing Executive is passed in its current form.
The Ulster Unionist minister has called on the Stormont Assembly to “strategically review” and change the draft budget, which he has warned could devastate already strained health services in Northern Ireland.
Mr Swann broke ranks as the only member of the four-party powersharing administration to refuse to back the spending plan which was agreed by his ministerial colleagues on Thursday.
It has developed into the first major row within the restored powersharing administration, undermining the unified approach ministers had previously been keen to project as they pressed the UK Government for more money.
While the health service has been allocated more than half the £14.5 billion resource budget available to the devolved government, Mr Swann has said it falls well short of the money needed to maintain services at safe levels.
“What I am saying is a diminished health service, a health service that is actually ravaged by millions of pounds worth of cuts, is bad for people’s health,” he told the BBC Good Morning Ulster programme.
He added: “I believed that going into this Executive and the Assembly return, we heard from across the political parties, across the political spectrum, that health was going to be a priority, waiting list initiatives were going to be a priority.
“And when I looked at the allocation that was being proposed for health, I don’t see that reflected in the actions or the proposals that were taken.
“And that’s why I took the stance that I did yesterday, because I don’t believe that our health service, the people who use it, the people who work in it, are being prioritised the way that I want them to be.”
Mr Swann said he believed there needed to be a “greater maturity of debate” around the Executive table.
Asked if he would resign over the budget, the minister said: “There were challenges. Yesterday was a very challenging day. There were hard decisions and hard conversations being had around that table.
“But this is the first stage of this budget process. The budget now moves to the Assembly for debate and to be voted on by other parties and other MLAs as well.
“There is still a fight to be had in regards to this budget.”
Pressed if he would walk away if the budget goes ahead in its current form, Mr Swann said: “I think we as a party will make those calls when we see how this develops through time and I think it will be a number of weeks where we see this budget work out.”
Speaking later on the Nolan Show, Mr Swann said the Ulster Unionist Party would vote against the draft budget in the Assembly if it was not changed.
He said: “I am calling for the Assembly to strategically review this budget, what it will mean.
“When it goes to different stages of the debate I think they should be looking at what can be amended, what can be changed, because that’s what I will be doing as health minister.”
But Alliance Party deputy leader Stephen Farry insisted that health was a priority for the Stormont Executive.
He said: “But we also have to stand up and govern here. Northern Ireland has been without government for the past two years; that has seen massive damage to Northern Ireland.
“We now have a situation where the Executive is returning into what is an unprecedented financial crisis.”
Stormont’s First and deputy First Ministers Michelle O’Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly expressed disappointment on Thursday that Mr Swann had been unable to support the budget.
Ms Little-Pengelly said the sum asked for by the Health Minister would have consumed the entire unallocated funding available to the Executive.
Finance Minister Caoimhe Archibald has said the Stormont Executive would continue to press the Westminster Government for more funding for Northern Ireland.