Ahead of the main Northern Ireland Reception, Northern Ireland Conservatives and the NIIRTA held a lunch at Conservative Conference today, with the Secretary of State Owen Paterson MP, NI Conservatives Area Chair Irwin Armstrong, Chairman of the Retail and Consumer Goods group of Conservative Business Relations Philip Dunne MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Town Centres Marcus Jones MP, the Irish Ambassador to the UK Bobby McDonagh, Glyn Roberts from the NIIRTA and other business leaders from Northern Ireland.
“It was an extremely useful and productive meeting”, Irwin Armstrong commented, “we discussed several ideas to revitalise our high streets in Northern Ireland, to create jobs and to get our economy moving. It’s absolutely critical for politicians to listen to business and vice versa. Conference is a great opportunity for that to happen.”
“In his conference speech this morning George Osborne described Conservatives as the ‘party of enterprise and small businesses’. He’s absolutely right and that’s been proven in Northern Ireland where Conservatives are spearheading initiatives to grow our economy and create jobs.”
“ It’s private enterprise, rather than the public sector, which can create a sustainable rise in employment in Northern Ireland, which is something that Sammy Wilson and his colleagues would do well to remember. Conservatives in Northern Ireland, and at Westminster, will continue to do our utmost to help businesses create those much needed jobs”.