A new documentary will break down the cost of our public services in the absence of a Northern Ireland assembly.
Speaking to people in charge of government departments to find out why our services are under such huge levels of strain, the programme examines Health, Education and Justice - the three biggest spenders of our budget and explains how and where the money is spent.
The game asks players to make decisions on MLA Pay; Corporation Tax; Tuition Fees; Teachers Pay; Travel for the Over 60s and School Transport.
Players will be given a choice on what they could spend the money on - and will then be informed of the consequences of these decisions.
The game, developed with the Economic Policy Centre at Ulster University, can be played here .
Spend It Like Stormont, airing on Wednesday, June 12, asks the same questions of three groups of people aged 18-34, 35-64 and over 65s, to see what decisions they would make with the country’s coffers.
William Crawley, one of the hosts, said: “I’ve been across Northern Ireland, in our hospitals and schools to hear about the impact that increasing demand is having on our public services. It’s clear we as a society have many decisions to make about the best way to spend our money but it’s far from straightforward – while we would all like more money to spend, there’s only a limited amount to go around.”
Tara Mills added: “We often hear debates about how much money we raise in Northern Ireland and how much we get from Westminster. This programme dispels those myths and clarifies once and for all the true figures.
“We bring together different groups of people to pretend to be Finance Minister for the day. It’s fascinating to see where they would like to see money spent – and who would lose out. And there’s even the chance to play the game yourself before the programme airs.”
Tara and William are joined in the programme by one of Northern Ireland’s top economists, Neil Gibson, who helps explain some of the economic context behind government spending decisions.
Spend It Like Stormont, Wednesday 12 June, BBC One Northern Ireland, 9pm. Available to watch on the BBC iPlayer after broadcast.
