reductions in public expenditure in northern ireland have often been described as not as harsh as those for the uk as a whole. this is primarily due to the fact that the uk government has not been able to exert direct control over welfare expenditure in northern ireland, because welfare policy is a devolved matter for the northern ireland assembly. on a number of occasions the assembly has not agreed to cuts in public spending, effectively refusing to make them, despite pressure from the uk government. however, the uk government has sought to recoup the expected savings through a fine on northern ireland's block grant, which is calculated according to the barnett formula, and which fell by 8% in real terms between 2010 and 2015. research by oxfam ireland which was published in 2014 indicated said that austerity measures were affecting northern ireland disproportionately due to its being one of the uk's most disadvantaged regions with a high dependence on public spending. in 2017 the conservative–dup agreement resulted in an additional £1 billion of public sector funding for northern ireland over two years, with the money focused on the health, infrastructure and education budgets.