Debate contribution: Job Creation: Ambitious Targets

Debate contribution by Mr Pádraig Delargy on 19 March 2024.

MLA

Mr Pádraig Delargy

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

19 March 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Job Creation: Ambitious Targets

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4279722

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I want to focus on two areas: productivity and regional balance. I will begin by echoing a lot of what Mr Elliott said, as I have heard in my constituency about skills gaps and the fact that colleges have stepped in ably to plug those gaps and be responsive to the economic needs in the area. One issue has been our relatively low productivity levels. Employers continue to want to hire more staff to grow and to invest but struggle to get people with the right skills. We have seen that the North has lower productivity levels than, for example, Britain and that successive DUP Economy Ministers have failed to get to grips with that, despite holding that portfolio for a number of years. Improving access to skills will be key to narrowing the productivity gap further in the coming years. The Minister has already indicated his intention to improve the opportunities for people to upskill and reskill through a range of programmes, including all-age apprenticeships, which will be a game changer for skills and will mean that workers, in later life in particular, can earn as they learn and can reskill and upskill without having to pay for their apprenticeship learning.

Notably, the productivity gap has closed slightly in recent months. However, productivity remains, on average, 11% below the rate in Britain and, according to a recent study, almost 40% below the rate in the South. I trust that the Economy Minister's vision and the policies that will stem from it will close the gap further. That means utilising dual-market access to grow domestic exports and attract highly productive FDI. It means developing all-Ireland clusters in high-productivity sectors that are key to driving economic progress and productivity. As my colleague Mr McGuigan said, Sinn Féin will vote for the motion and the amendment, outlining the need to promote regional balance and to tackle the regional and rural inequalities that have, for so long, kept our economy from being inclusive. If I were an investor and I was sitting here, I would want to hear the positives and the benefits coming from Derry, the north-west region and regions across the North. I am proud to be from Derry. I am proud to call that place home. It is a fantastic place in which to live, work and build a life. I concur with the comments made by my colleague Mr Middleton. We need to start talking up areas such as Derry. We need to start making sure that areas across the North are spoken about positively in this place and that we talk up the place, its positivity and its people.

I totally agree. I have spoken to people in dozens of companies — FDI companies in particular, but also regional companies — who have spoken about that. Dozens of them can bear testimony to the fact that they have set up a business in Derry, grown that business and created a huge number of regional jobs. The thing that they say all the time is that they are here because of people; they are here because of what we have to offer and what is unique about us. I totally agree with that point. In my constituency, I hear, all the time, that people want to talk about the future and to hear about the positive opportunities that we have. That lines up exactly with what Conor, as Economy Minister, set out with regards to looking at how Invest NI does business and at regional balance, investing in City of Derry Airport and growing places at Magee. We have a lot to talk about and to talk up in our region. The Minister's vision also talks about transforming and reorganising Invest NI into new regional structures. That is dedicated to home-grown small to medium-sized businesses and start-up companies. Once implemented, those forums will enable Invest NI to operate regional offices across the North that will work on an inclusive basis, in partnership with councils, the business community, trade unions and local enterprise agencies. That model will be a game changer. It will decentralise Invest NI and provide greater focus on investor visits, job assistance and job creation being delivered more equally across the North. I will not dispute the relevance of any of the industries in the 10X vision — that has been covered in detail — but I will say that, when I speak to people and business owners in my community, they are quick to point out that the 10X strategy never focused on construction, tourism or social enterprise. All those sectors have huge job opportunities, labour shortages and skills progression. I think that we will see a lot more of that in the future, which would be a positive development. The Minister's vision goes beyond that to create an economy that will benefit workers, families and businesses of all sizes and in all sectors.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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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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