Debate contribution: Spirit AeroSystems

Debate contribution by Mr Conor Murphy on 1 July 2024.

MLA

Mr Conor Murphy

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

1 July 2024

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Question for Urgent Oral Answer

Heading

Spirit AeroSystems

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4499414

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Following this morning's announcements, I am committed to supporting Spirit AeroSystems in seeking the best outcome for our economy and the workforce based here. I have spoken with senior management at the company and with Boeing to ensure that we will explore all avenues for sustaining the operations and employment here. I will continue to engage with the company and the unions on the acquisition by working with key stakeholders to ensure that the future status of the highly skilled workforce is protected.

I recognise the nervousness that will be felt about that. The best outcome would be for Airbus to take the entirety of the operation here. It has focused on the wing production unit, which, of course, is good news for the significant number of workers involved in that part of the operation, but a larger number of workers are outside that. They will continue to be Spirit employees. We have something like six to 12 months from the announcement of the merger and the acquisition by Airbus to work that through. Last night, the deputy First Minister, the First Minister and I had a late-night engagement with Boeing, and we had a very early morning engagement with Spirit. I hope to reach out this week to the Department in London, and, with an incoming Government on the other side of this week, we clearly intend to reach out there as well, and we will continue to engage. There is a recognition by Boeing, Spirit and Airbus that there is a highly skilled workforce here, that they have been performing remarkably well, that there is room for growth in the aerospace industry and that Boeing previously did an awful lot here. As a matter of fact, most of its work outside the United States was done here. We are ambitious not only to secure that but to continue to grow the aerospace industry here. We in the Executive are united in our viewpoint on this, and we ensured that Boeing and Spirit heard it. We will also ensure that the Government and Airbus hear about our commitment to protect those jobs and to make sure that there continues to be growth in the sector here. There is a period of time now when everything is on the table for discussion. There is significant certainty for those who work in the wing production side of things and less so for others, but we want to get to a space where we can protect that employment and continue to grow the industry here. As I said, there is international recognition of the quality of the workforce here and the quality of output that there has been for many years.

I have met the unions already, and I will be happy to meet them again whenever they wish. They will know, as we do, that this is the announcement of the beginning of a process that will roll on for months. We need to make sure that all the key players in that process understand the importance of the workforce to here, to our economy and to the community that lives here. That has already landed, certainly with Boeing and Spirit. We are in that space anyway. Boeing has pledged to be partners with us, and we want to make sure that a new Government, when they are in place, are fully committed. A level of support was given to Airbus and others to ensure that the workforce was kept here. We want to follow up on those commitments and make sure that they are held to. Of course, I will meet the unions again. If that is their wish, I am happy to do so. I have already met with them. They were aware that the process was beginning and, like us, wanted to protect the jobs and the skills on that site. We will continue to work with them in the time ahead to get the best possible outcome.

Invest NI is already doing a lot of the legwork with the companies involved and has been for some time. It is in contact today with the Department in London. As I said, I hope to get an opportunity to speak to that Department this week. We have a strong commitment to go when a Government are in place beyond next week to make sure that they understand fully what we wish to do. Invest NI will lead on the ground on the issue and is very much engaged with it, and we will ensure that we have that conversation. The British Government were substantial funders of the project here, but the Executive were the significant funder, and we want to ensure that all of that investment in skills, R&D and innovation — the intellectual property that has been built up in the skills base — is kept here and utilised fully in the growth of that industry.

A lot of that remains under Spirit, which will stay there until such times as the process is concluded. Of course, we want to ensure that, where support was given to secure employment, that support is held to, and we will get the opportunity to talk to Airbus. What Spirit wants to see and what we want to see is, if it is not Airbus or Boeing, a responsible owner taking over the remainder of the operation here so that it can continue to be developed in the way that it has been developed and those skills and all of that know-how and talent can be put to full use in the context, as Boeing has informed us, of a growing industry that is getting back to where it was pre-COVID and continues to grow.

It will push all the buttons that we can push. Our main attraction is that we have a highly skilled workforce with a significant number of years' experience in this area. That workforce has won multiple awards for its innovation and the work that it does in the general aerospace sector. It is also well versed on the significant supply chain in the sector. That is probably the primary attraction at the moment. Certainly, if there are other advantages with dual access or anything else and they are attractive to making sure that we get the right ownership for the remainder of the business, whether it is Airbus or others, we will deploy all the arguments that are available to us.

Yes, that is the ambition: not just to secure the workforce here but to grow it. The indications are that growth in the industry is possible, and we want to be in the space where that can happen. We need, if you like, a strategic owner of the business — somebody who is engaged across Europe, the States or the rest of the world — who has the same ambition as we have, which is to employ an already skilled workforce and to add to it.

1,160 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not qualifying

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:57 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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