Northern Executive Agrees New Budget

Confirmation that the Executive has settled on the departmental allocation for 2010/11 ends months of uncertainty over funding.

Education boards had been left in the highly unusual situation of not knowing what their budget would be and had been advised by the department to use last year as guide.

A number of outstanding issues had held up agreement round the Executive table.

It is understood one of the major sticking points was the allocation for Northern Ireland Water, which comes under the remit of Regional Development Minister Conor Murphy.

But a senior executive source said all issues had now been resolved.

"Ministers have held a series of discussions over the last few days and an agreement on the budget has now been reached," he said.

The spending plans will now go before the assembly later in the month.