The Conservatives’ economic spokesman for Northern Ireland has described the ‘Fresh Start’ budget, which will be debated today at Stormont, as a “let down for businesses and a blow to the economy”. Johnny Andrews, the party’s prospective Assembly candidate for Strangford, added that the document represented a “distinctly unpromising start for the new First Minister”.
“The budget was written in December as Arlene Foster’s ‘last hurrah’ at the finance department. It is desperately disappointing, because it fails to prioritise jobs and the economy”, Johnny explained. “There is no clear plan to complement a reduction of Corporation Tax, which is so central to Northern Ireland’s economic prospects, and that’s an astonishing omission. The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and the new Department of the Economy, which are charged with driving job creation, are targeted for cuts. Likewise, funding for further and higher education, which will provide our young people with the skills to compete for employment and make our society prosperous, is being slashed, at a time when we should be doing all we can to produce more science, technology and engineering graduates.”
“The former finance minister, now the First Minister, should be concentrating relentlessly on creating sustainable private sector jobs and an enterprise culture, for all the people of Northern Ireland. She should be listening to businesses who are telling her what we need to grow a successful, buoyant private sector. Instead, we have vanity infrastructure projects determined a DUP / Sinn Fein carve-up, rather than essential works, like the Sydenham by-pass and Dee Street link, which was approved in 2009. As enterprise minister and then as finance minister, Arlene Foster was unable to craft a coherent policy to create jobs, make Northern Ireland more competitive or arrest major job losses in manufacturing. Unfortunately, with this budget, she’s starting off her term as First Minister with more of the same.”