Zahawi in energy discount talks with Stormont

Stormont ministers are due to hold further talks with the Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi later to discuss how people in Northern Ireland will get a £400 discount on energy bills.

Stormont politicians have been calling for the same timetable in Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is in a different energy market to the rest of the UK.

Meanwhile, Northern Ireland Secretary Shailesh Vara has urged political parties at Stormont to help people who are struggling to pay energy bills by restoring Stormont's devolved government.

"Right now we have £437 million that is just waiting to be spent and we have people in Northern Ireland who are suffering as much as anywhere else in the UK," he said.

"There are rising energy costs, there is an issue of the rising cost of living and we still have an assembly that is not sitting."

But the lack of a Speaker means the Northern Ireland Assembly cannot function properly and its power-sharing executive government cannot take any major policy decisions.

Afterwards Mr Zahawi said the Treasury could act in the absence of devolved government and take the scheme forward by making the payments to energy companies, who will then take the discount directly off customers' bills.

Economy Minister Gordon Lyons said that would be the "quickest way" to ensure households in Northern Ireland benefitted from the scheme.

But Communities Minister Deirdre Hargey said there were still "legal issues" to resolve.

It is understood the requirement for a 90-day public consultation by Northern Ireland's Utility Regulator will not be needed if the Treasury delivers the scheme.

The ministers are expected to hold a virtual meeting with Mr Zahawi and officials later.

Stormont's Department of Finance has said that if the Treasury ultimately provides the £400 energy bill discount to households directly, it anticipates a "Barnett consequential of £164.8m" announced in February will be reversed.

The Barnett formula is used to calculate additional funding when there are changes to UK government spending that affects devolved services.

But without a functioning executive at Stormont, money allocated from Westminster that way cannot be spent.

Stormont's Department of Finance has said that the pot of funding unable to be spent totals more than £435m.

In a statement, the Northern Ireland secretary said: "I would use this occasion to make a plea to all the politicians in Northern Ireland to look at the 1.9 million people who are facing difficulties in many households and who need that money.

"I would urge the politicians to actually get around that table, have the executive running and start spending that money," Mr Vara said.

Stormont has been without a power-sharing executive since February, after the DUP pulled its first minister out of government in protest over the protocol.

An election was held in May and the DUP was returned as the second-largest party, but it is refusing to return to government until post-Brexit trading arrangements are changed.

Stormont ministers are allowed to stay in post for six months after an election to give time for any stand-offs to be resolved, before another poll is called.

However, Sinn Fein's Stormont leader Michelle O'Neill has told the Financial Times had no confidence that Mr Vara intends to call fresh assembly elections if the power-sharing institutions are not restored by the end of October.

"These are people who continually find ways to go around the law," she said.

Mr Vara responded to her comments by saying he was "sorry that Michelle takes that view of me".

"I have spoken to her on a couple of occasions and I certainly haven't indicated to her anything about what I would or would not do at the end of October," he said.

"Be in no doubt, the law is clear, right now as the law stands I will have to call an election at the end of October if we don't get an Executive up and running.

"I very much hope that we don't get to that stage because I know the people of Northern Ireland won't want an election just before Christmas … people just want to get on with their lives," Mr Vara added.