The cross-party welcome for the North's budget was muted only by calls for more money to be made available from the British exchequer.
The deputy leader of the anti-agreement DUP said he wished "to congratulate the minister on the presentation of his first home-grown budget", and his party's two ministers were also complimentary.
The Regional Development Minister, Mr Gregory Campbell, of the DUP, said he fully acknowledged "the difficult balancing act" which confronted Mr Durkan, Minister of Finance, and in particular welcomed the recognition for the acute needs within public transport, roads and water and sewerage.
Mr Campbell said the budget marked a "modest but significant" beginning in addressing the "funding gap that we face in developing our infrastructure", but warned that more money would need to be found in the future.
The Minister of Health and Social Services, Ms Bairbre de Brun, said the Executive had been faced with some hard choices in drawing up its budget. "Many urgent pressures, across the full range of public services, had to be addressed," the Sinn Fein minister said .
Referring to her department's increase, she said that "£154 million is still a very considerable and worthwhile addition to our spending power", but added: "I have to confess that it falls short of the sum I believe is needed to transform the service."
The Minister of Higher and Further Education, Training and Employment said Mr Durkan had been hampered by the amount of money allocated to him by the Westminster government. "It is unfortunate that the Barnett formula, which is used to determine the whole Northern Ireland budget allocation, has not delivered sufficient resources to allow the Executive Committee to match all of the increases in expenditure announced in England," Dr Sean Farren of the SDLP said.
"For my department this means we cannot, at this time, do as much on higher and further education and on adult literacy and numeracy as we would like."
The Environment Minister welcomed the extra £13 million for his department. Mr Sam Foster of the UUP said it would make a real difference to the services provided by the DoE.
Teaching unions and health boards also welcomed the proposals. Mr John Bradley, chairman of the Western Health and Social Services Board, said the announcement of increases to health "illustrates the benefits of having local ministers making the case for local services".