He was speaking during the Assembly debate around second stage of the Fiscal Council Bill.

Mr Honeyford has said: “Since 2021, the Fiscal Council has been instrumental in providing detailed assessments of Northern Ireland’s funding formula, budget analyses and most recently on the funding and sustainability of NI Water, to name a few.

“Although Alliance would argue that our Fiscal Floor needs to be much higher than 124, without the Fiscal Council independent analysis of Northern Ireland’s level of need, getting an Interim Fiscal Framework last year may not have been possible. This framework has helped Northern Ireland combat some of its historical underfunding.

“However, tackling the cost of division would be instrumental in delivering for everyone right across our society, with recent estimates indicating that this costs us up to £833m a year with the duplication of services in education, leisure and community provisions, and the increase in policing and justice costs.

“The Fiscal Council having due regard for this would enable them to hold Executive departments to account in terms of eliminating these largely unnecessary costs.

“Building a united community is an essential part of sustainably restoring our public finances. Addressing the cost of division should be at the top of the Fiscal Council’s agenda, but we welcome the progress of this bill and look forward to seeing the Fiscal Council finally be put on a statutory footing.”