Debate contribution: Job Creation: Ambitious Targets

Debate contribution by Lord Elliott on 19 March 2024.

MLA

Lord Elliott

Party at the time

Ulster Unionist Party

Date

19 March 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Job Creation: Ambitious Targets

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4279714

Read the official Assembly record

Text

It has been an interesting debate. There has even been a little politics in it, which we got out of somewhere. It is great for a community when it has a number of jobs and the choice of employment, whether that is in the public sector or the private sector. You know that communities are thriving when you see people who are positive about that. It is great for the Members for Lagan Valley that they live in one of the wealthiest areas of Northern Ireland, but think of the rest of us out in the west — Fermanagh and South Tyrone, Foyle or wherever — which does not have the wealthiest areas. I do not agree that, just because you live in those areas, you can plot your way forward from a young age. People develop at different stages of life, and they take up different skills at various stages. Some great entrepreneurs have come from places that are not as wealthy as Lagan Valley. There are people from the west of the Province and other areas who have done exceptionally well.

Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the Member for her intervention. Yes, of course, your life should not be determined by your postcode or where you were born or live, but a lot of people ensure that that is not how their life evolves. They make their own choices in life. There are skills that are not in Northern Ireland — at least, they are not here in great quantities — that we need to develop. I hear the figure of 5,000. I am not sure where that figure has come from, to be fair. However, if a business came from America in the morning offering 5,000 jobs of a specific type, could we fulfil that? I do not believe that we could at the moment, and that is one of the dangers. We have to look at employers as well. Where are the skills required? I hear employers say, "I can't get the lorry drivers", "I can't get the people to do the office administration" or "I can't get the healthcare workers whom we have heard about." There is a huge dearth of some skills that has not been identified. I have to be fair to the regional colleges. In a lot of instances, they have moved on from the old technical colleges that I remember. They provide a much wider range of skills now, but that requires further development, particularly in areas that need specific skills. I point to Fermanagh and South Tyrone. The south Tyrone area has huge numbers involved in food production, but it also has small engineering firms that require the skills that need to be provided by the regional colleges. That is important as well. I always like to support indigenous businesses. We have witnessed so many foreign direct investors coming into Northern Ireland, but they last for a short time and then they are gone, whereas those indigenous businesses, grown in the communities, survive for much longer. I cannot not mention BT/EE, which is reviewing its situation in Fermanagh and Enniskillen but without giving out enough information. I heard the Minister say earlier that even he cannot get some of the information that the employees would like. I accept that it is a private company, but I just wish that, at this stage, it would be more open and transparent with its loyal employees. They have been good to BT and EE over the years, and they now deserve the respect of at least being given the information. There needs to be a balance here. We need to upskill young people and make sure that they are ready for the job opportunities that will be there. However, it is also about supporting employers, because, often, employers feel that they are in a position where employees are dictating to them. I have to tell Members the story of an employer who was chatting to me. Just by chance, he said to me that his eight or nine employees had told him that they were going down to a four-day week. They just told the employer. It did not matter what the employer thought or whether he thought that they should still work their five hours on a Friday. He was just told that, and he felt demoralised by it. He said that it seemed like the tail wagging the dog. He did not have a huge amount of pressure to exert on them, so he felt unable to say, "Well, look, you just can't do that", and he felt lonely and isolated.

772 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 09:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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