Member's statement: Job Losses: Enniskillen
Member's statement by Mrs Deborah Erskine on .
- MLA
- Mrs Deborah Erskine
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 5 March 2024
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Job Losses: Enniskillen
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4252321
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I want to bring the Chamber's attention again to the significant job losses that are facing people in Enniskillen in my constituency. Nearly a month ago, BT Group announced that it was considering the closure of its Enniskillen site. To say that there was mixed messaging from BT is an understatement.
On the one hand, it advised BT/EE employees contracted to its site that it was considering closing the site, yet it was at pains to say that no decision had been made. Which is it? Quite rightly, employees are asking such questions today. This bombshell left 300 employees worried sick. Around many kitchen tables in my constituency, big decisions on their daily lives are being made, and they are considering whether to accept the package that BT is offering or to wait it out. BT's reputation in my constituency has been damaged, and I am disappointed that, to date, BT has failed to meet local MLAs to discuss the issue. Instead, last week, it issued another extension to the package and said that it would meet MLAs on 19 April. That is some 70 days since the initial announcement was made. I have hundreds of emails and calls from concerned local hard-working people who are employees of BT and are not sure where to turn. A few weeks ago, there was a public meeting, and, last night, there was a second meeting, organised by the Communication Workers Union. Unfortunately, because of business in the Chamber and meetings at Stormont, I was unable to make it. However, I know the strength of feeling that there is in Fermanagh right now. These are not just 300 people and 300 jobs. This will have a knock-on impact on our coffee shops, our clothes shops and our restaurants in Enniskillen and across Fermanagh and South Tyrone. Our local economy will be decimated as one of our biggest employers has its eyes set on its own profits. Unlike urban centres, we do not have the luxury of global competitors coming in like a knight on a white horse to provide employment for those workers, so today I repeat my call for everybody in this Chamber and the Executive, including the Economy Minister, to prioritise this issue and work together to apply pressure and ensure that these jobs are saved and kept in Enniskillen.
389 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Jev’s structured answers met the documented threshold for “not flagged”.
- Overall probability that the activity is being used to promote, exploit or escalate an identity-based controversy: 0.03 (flagging needs at least 0.70; at or below 0.30 is not flagged).
- None of the five culture-war criteria was met (each was below 0.60).
- Assessed as legitimate policy scrutiny (0.82).
- No identity-based framing was identified (1.00).
- The overall probability was at or below the not-flagging threshold.
This is an AI-generated assessment of the text, made against published criteria. It is not a finding of fact about the MLA or their intentions. The Assembly record itself is the fact.
Jev’s structured answers
| Question | Probability | Met? |
|---|---|---|
| Identity framing | 0.03 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.02 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.02 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.82 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.03 | At or below not-flagging threshold |
| Option | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-based framing (chosen) | 1.00 |
| Reports or questions it | 0.00 |
| Criticises or condemns it | 0.00 |
| Adopts it | 0.00 |
| Subject | Probability |
|---|---|
| No identity-related subject | 1.00 |
| Flags, emblems, symbols, names and memorials | 0.00 |
| Parades, bonfires and commemorations | 0.00 |
| Irish language, Ulster-Scots and language policy | 0.00 |
| Sport (including the GAA), the arts and cultural bodies | 0.00 |
Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:43 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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