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Assembly recall for budget debate Minister angry over flu funding
(about 7 hours later)
A special sitting of the assembly will be held later to debate Finance Minister Sammy Wilson's June budget statement. Health Minister Michael McGimpsey has criticised the refusal of the finance minister to provide him with the £55m he says he needs to tackle swine flu.
Mr Wilson is expected to outline his plans for redistributing any unspent money between departments. Mr McGimpsey was speaking as the new finance minister, Sammy Wilson, unveiled his plans to allocate an extra £235m.
Last week, details of redistribution of unspent funds were not given to the assembly and it caused a row. Most of the money is going to pay for deferred water charges, while £20m is going to Housing Executive renovations.
Sinn Fein and other parties asked for the assembly be recalled from its summer break for the sitting. Mr Wilson said the Executive was trying to use the money imaginatively.
However, Michael McGimpsey was not impressed given what he said was the urgency of his case in battling swine flu.
"I'm deeply disappointed," he said. "We have a pandemic flu worldwide - the biggest health challenge the world has faced for many years.
"Yet we in Northern Ireland, alone of all the governments in the British Isles, appear to be sailing on willy-nilly."
An assembly source told the BBC the Department of Finance was still negotiating with the Treasury on funding for swine flu.
Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie welcomed her department's allocation, which she said would safeguard 800 jobs in the building trade.