Politicians from Northern Ireland’s five largest parties are going head-to-head in the final TV debate of the general election campaign.
The election is taking place on 4 July with 18 seats available in Northern Ireland.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson, Sinn Féin’s Chris Hazzard, Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) leader Colum Eastwood, Alliance leader Naomi Long and Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) deputy leader Robbie Butler are taking part in the BBC debate.
The politicians are taking questions from the audience on a range of issues.
The first question focused on the health service and its future budget.
In May, then-Health Minister Robin Swann of the Ulster Unionist Party voted against the executive’s budget for 2024-2025, arguing it would lead to real term cuts for his department.
Chris Hazzard said there was an onus on the next UK government to work with MPs from Northern Ireland to push for more funding to invest in the health service and transformation.
The DUP leader Gavin Robinson said if the executive had allocated more cash towards health, the Departments of Justice and Education would have been left without funding for police officers and special needs education.
Naomi Long argued that any plan for transformation needed to come from the Ulster Unionist Health Minister Mike Nesbitt.
His colleague Robbie Butler told the audience that previous suspensions of power-sharing at Stormont had caused stagnation in the health service, while SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said the parties needed to stop “squabbling” and make a united case to the UK Government.
The Department of Health gets the largest share of day-to-day funding – £7.76bn.