UK Unemployment Falls - But Rises in Northern Ireland
12 September 2012
Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:
“Once again Northern Ireland sadly has bucked the trend when it comes to unemployment. While the rate has fallen across the UK as a whole, it has risen in our Province.
“DETI need to face up to the problem, not seek to spin the figures as Minister Foster’s statement does.
“We are constantly being told that the economy is the priority for the Executive but the reality is that Stormont has done nothing to address the situation.
“It is becoming increasingly apparent that our politically contrived links with the Republic of Ireland are holding Northern Ireland back. It’s time for our Province to pursue policies which are designed to grow the economy, regardless of the impact this will have upon the architecture of the Belfast Agreement which shackles us to the bankrupt Republic.
“Young people are finding it almost impossible to find employment and a lost generation is emerging. Yet Stormont cannot even decide if it needs a Department for Employment – six months ago it was to be dispatched, now it is to be kept because of political expediency”.
