Tynwald voted overwhelmingly to back this year’s Budget.

The Speaker was the only one to vote against Alfred Cannan’s ’Budget of Resilience’ after a debate lasting three and a quarter hours.

Arbory, Castletown and Malew MHK Jason Moorhouse said the largest omission from the Budget was funding for a new Castle Rushen High School.

’I worry about the future of this much-needed project.’

Daphne Caine (Garff) said the fact the majority of the capital programme will continue to be undertaken by the Department of Infrastructure ’didn’t inspire confidence of delivery on time and on budget’.

She said: ’The real focus should be the incompetent delivery of two miles of promenade.

’Will it in fact be more expensive per mile than HS2 when it is finally finished?’

She said the original £21m budget was to complete the whole scheme and said she was not convinced an additional £1.2m to complete the horse tram tracks will be the final figure needed to complete the prom.

’The anti-heritage bias of Treasury is evident yet again in the slipping of the remaining heritage horse tramway construction budget into the third column, for future approval, requiring yet another vote of this Honourable Court,’ she said.

The fact the broken Laxey Wheel is not receiving any funding from government in this budget is ’also of concern’, Mrs Caine said.

Infrastructure Minister Tim Baker pointed out there was no extra money for the Promenade scheme in the Budget.

He insisted the project will be finished in the summer, but the impact of the circuit breaker lockdown meant the date will now be the end of July rather than the end of June.

Mr Baker said that his department had been extensively reviewed but this was not to say a further review should not be done.

Chris Robertshaw (Douglas East), who said he is ’just about to depart politics’, told Tynwald: ’The truth is, that despite all the good work, government is still growing.’

Martyn Perkins (Garff) said frontline health workers should be treated as a special case when it came to pay. ’Surely their dedication and commitment deserve more than 1%,’ he said.

Speaker Juan Watterson once again voted against the Budget in protest at the system under which it is put together.

’The Budget is not truly scrutinised,’ he said, describing the system as a ’relic of the colonial age.’

Mr Watterson said it had not been an easy year to be a Treasury Minister.

He said changes to the system of capital funding might make it hard to ringfence capital money. And he said real tangible saving needs to be found to support public sector pensions.

Mr Watterson said we have still not recovered from the structural debt arising from the VAT bombshell from over a decade ago.

Lawrie Hooper (LibVan, Ramsey) said he was disappointed not to see dedicated funding for the all-island housing strategy.

He said dealing with the island’s challenge of providing ’suitable, affordable and sustainable’ homes was ’absolutely essential ’.

Treasury member Bill Shimmins (Middle) said the £17m allocated to address climate change could help reduce day to day energy bills, while providing many economic opportunities and jobs for the future economy.

’This money needs to be spent wisely for the many not just the privileged few,’ he said.

Mr Shimmins dismissed as ’absolute nonsense’ claims by Garff MHK Mrs Caine that Treasury was anti-heritage.

’The Treasury Minister wants to cut up the credit card, Mrs Caine wants a blank cheque for the horse trams.’ he said.

In his summing up, Mr Cannan warned: ’This pandemic doubtless will have a few cards to throw yet.’