Debate contribution: National Insurance Contributions: Support to Businesses
Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on .
- MLA
- Dr Caoimhe Archibald
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 28 January 2025
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- National Insurance Contributions: Support to Businesses
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 4763929
Read the official Assembly record
Text
With your permission, Mr Speaker, I will answer questions 3 and 14 together. I have been engaging with businesses from a wide range of sectors, including businesses in the hospitality sector, and have heard about the cost pressures that they are facing. I, too, am concerned about the planned changes to National Insurance contributions that are coming in April and have written to the British Government on the need for support or mitigations to ease their impact. I have also commissioned the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC) to carry out an independent sectoral study on the cost of doing business here. Terms of reference for the research have been published on my Department's website. That research, which will include an assessment of the impact across sectors, will allow me to present as strong a case as possible to the British Treasury on the matter. In addition, my Department, through Land and Property Services (LPS), offers a wide range of support schemes. Those schemes provide £275 million of support to business ratepayers, alongside offering alternative payment options to assist those who need them because of rating debt. Some 65% of the hospitality industry as a whole is in receipt of support via the small business rate relief scheme.
I have also written to Executive colleagues to encourage them to ensure that their Departments and arm's-length bodies are doing everything that they can to improve performance on prompt payment to businesses. Rest assured that I will do all that I can to press for the needs of the hospitality industry to be addressed.
262 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: 0.02 (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 (0.90).
- 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 | 0.02 | No |
| Sectarian or communal antagonism | 0.01 | No |
| Cultural grievance politics | 0.01 | No |
| Dog-whistle messaging | 0.01 | No |
| Controversy escalation | 0.02 | No |
| Legitimate policy scrutiny | 0.90 | Yes |
| Overall judgement | 0.02 | 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 11:53 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.
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