It is time for a decision to be made at the “highest level” of the UK government over increased funding for public services in Northern Ireland, Finance Minister John O’Dowd has said.Sinn Féin’s O’Dowd said Westminster was being “unfair” to people in the region due to the funding package allocated to Stormont.Ulster Unionist Health Minister Mike Nesbitt said an additional £3 billion in funding would put Northern Ireland in “quite a comfortable place”.Nesbitt also said he believes the reason new UK prime minister Andy Burnham has not visited the region since taking up office is that he “doesn’t have news yet” on a revised budget settlement.Stormont ministers have been unable to agree a budget for the current financial year, with departments operating on contingency budgets since April.Ministers across the four-party Executive have consistently made the point that they need more money from the Treasury to address a funding crisis facing public services in the region.On Monday, O’Dowd said he had written to chancellor John Healey requesting an “urgent meeting” to discuss finances.Speaking on Tuesday, O’Dowd said: “One of the keys to tackling waiting lists and stabilising our health services is a multiyear budget, and to achieve that, we need to see a fairer funding settlement coming forward from the chancellor.“I’m on record as saying, as is the Fiscal Council, that Scotland’s funded £3 billion above its level of need, Wales is funded £1 billion above its level of need, and we are funded under our level of need.[ Government plans to ‘lean in’ to Andy Burnham’s Irish heritage, says junior ministerOpens in new window ]“So, how are ministers expected to drive forward the changes that are required with those sorts of figures?”O’Dowd said discussions with Treasury officials had been taking place for several months.“What we need now is a decision, and the people who make decisions around the cabinet table are the chancellor and the prime minister,” he said.“So that’s why I have written to the chancellor asking for a meeting because this needs to be raised to the highest levels of the British government, and decisions have to be made, and a fair and sustainable funding package has to be delivered to the people here.“If the British government are ignoring us as the elected representatives of the people here, that’s a question that needs to be posed to the British government, why they’re treating us with such disrespect.”O’Dowd said the powersharing Executive would not consider raising revenue internally through the introduction of water charges.[ New Northern Secretary ‘deliberately’ avoids answering united Ireland questionOpens in new window ]He said: “Putting further financial burden on hard-pressed families and workers isn’t the way forward.”Nesbitt said he was “not surprised” that Burnham had yet to visit Northern Ireland since becoming prime minister.He said: “Just before he took office, we opened negotiations with Treasury and the Northern Ireland Office on the budget. Those talks are unresolved.“The first question you’re going to ask him, if and when he does come to Northern Ireland, is: what about the budget? And he doesn’t have the answer to that yet.“We are missing out, not on hundreds of thousands, not on millions, but on billions of pounds in terms of the comparison with Wales and Scotland.“And if we were to get another £3 billion, I think John would agree, we would be in actually quite a comfortable place.“I think he’s (Burnham) not here because he doesn’t have news yet.”