Minister to propose £100 oil payment for lower income households in Northern Ireland

Stormont ministers have approved extra money to widen a support package for households which use home heating oil.

That will see up to 340,000 households receiving a £100 payment to go towards their heating oil bills.

It will apply to households with a combined income of £30,000 or less or those on certain benefits including the state pension.

The payment will come in the form of a pre-paid voucher, with people asked to apply online according to Communities Minister Gordon Lyons, whose department will take the lead in distributing the payments.

Lyons said he could not yet provide a timeframe for the scheme but said legislation would need to be passed, as well as eligibility checks taking place before households can receive the money.

It is unclear where the extra money will be found as all the Stormont departments are struggling under financial pressures.

Lyons said it was "targeted support" that would protect those who need it most, and that he recognised the length of time it had taken to produce the scheme, but that he wanted to get it right.

However, the minister said it was a short-term measure and that "more would need to be done" by the government.

First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the executive had made the decision while talks around agreeing a multi-year budget continued.

She said all ministers had painted a picture at Thursday's meeting of a "budget at breaking point", and that the executive now wanted to meet Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to make its case.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly said the executive saw and heard the message about pressures that businesses and households are facing.

She said the UK government had the tools and the financial firepower to help people in Northern Ireland, adding: "This is the moment to use both.

"This cannot wait… people cannot wait, we need a comprehensive package of support and we need it now."

The issue of fuel costs was discussed at the executive in the context of ongoing talks at the executive about a multi-year budget.

Ministers have repeatedly said they need additional resources from Westminster in order to balance their departmental budgets.

The government has provided the executive with additional funding worth £380m for public services over the next three years and has previously said that ministers must make "difficult" choices.

What has the executive said about fuel prices?

Fuel costs have soared globally as a result of the US-Israel war with Iran.

On Tuesday, some roads and motorways in Northern Ireland were blocked by farmers protesting over the hike in fuel, energy and fertiliser costs.

Last week, the first and deputy first ministers wrote to the prime minister asking for a package of measures to support those under pressure in Northern Ireland.

The executive does not have major financial levers to intervene, and has insisted the responsibility lies with London.

How close is the executive to agreeing a budget?

A multi-year budget would allow Stormont departments to plan longer-term spending and the executive has not agreed one for more than a decade.

But there are particularly acute pressures in the departments of health, education and justice that have made reaching agreement on it difficult.

A Stormont source said the executive was "stretched to breaking point" and that the current funding allocation was not enough over the next three years.

The executive is also exploring the option of agreeing a budget for 2026-27, but in the event that is the outcome, ministers would face returning to discussions before the end of the year to set a budget for 2027-28.

The timing of the next assembly election in May 2027 could complicate negotiations on a budget for that year.

Earlier, Matthew O'Toole, leader of the opposition at the assembly, said the executive was "desperate to simply shift responsibility rather than agree with one another their priorities for the public in Northern Ireland".

"They could have been meeting with trade unions, farmers groups, business groups understanding the extent of the cost pressure and then go to the UK government and say 'this is the type of support we need to implement, we need your financial backing'," the Social Democratic and Labour Party politician told Good Morning Ulster.

"They haven't done any of that, their first approach has been to say, as it were, 'computer says no, go and talk to London'.

"So while I agree that the UK government is clearly responsible for things like fuel duty and has the fiscal firepower, the problem is the executive has at the very first time of asking, simply sought to shift blame."

What is the government's view?

It has repeatedly said the funding on offer to the executive is a "record settlement" from Westminster.

All the executive parties maintain that the allocation does not go far enough.

Stormont's finance minister has been making the case to the Treasury to restore the "stabilisation fund" - additional one-off funding which accompanied the restoration of devolution in 2024, which has now ended.

The Northern Ireland secretary has also continued to raise the prospect of Stormont carrying out its own methods of revenue raising, in order to help shore up public services.

This view was echoed in a research paper published by the Northern Ireland Assembly last month, which stated that significant revenue raising is "unavoidable".

However, proposals to do this such as introducing water charges and raising tuition fees have been widely rejected by the political parties so far.