Simon Hamilton
Strangford · Democratic Unionist Party · Northern Ireland
“I have emphasised to the Member and the House before, that, whilst I accept that those are not good enough — that is why we have been developing the plan — there are alternative technologies in place that can present opportunities for those who just cannot get acceptable speeds.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. There are some initiatives that I believe will help and act as a driver to improve broadband access. One such intervention is the broadband universal service obligation (USO), which is being taken forward by Her Majesty's Government.”
“I thank the Member for his question. However, he is conflating two issues. I wrote to his party leader, and indeed to all Assembly party leaders, before making the announcement that I did last week about wanting to publish the details of the businesses in receipt of the non-domestic RHI scheme. It was my intention to do that tomorrow.”
“<BR /> <BR />The Chancellor, in his autumn statement, made some more funding available for telecommunications, and my Department is studying that and seeking to avail itself of that to the fullest possible extent.”
“In addition, my Department is managing a contract for the delivery of the superfast rollout programme, which, by 31 December, will provide access to superfast broadband with speeds of at least 24 megabits per second to a further 38,000 premises, both business and residential, across Northern Ireland, including in the Newry and Armagh cons…”
“I signalled the intention to do this a few weeks ago. The Member and the House will know that inspections of all installations would have taken place over the 20-year lifetime of the RHI scheme.”
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“<BR /> <BR />The Member has a narrow way of looking at it, which is direct support to the development of businesses. Arguably a better way of providing support is to support events that will bring floods of people into the area who will spend money in the businesses there. So, there are different ways of looking at it. I am confident from looking at the figures that the Tourist Board and the Minister are doing all that they can to support tourism and tourism businesses in the South Down and Down district areas.”
“The Ballynahinch Harvest and Country Living Festival, which is in a couple of weekends' time, was given £18,000 of investment. The Hans Sloane Chocolate and Fine Food Festival in Killyleagh, which, although it is in the Strangford constituency, is in the Down district area, has received £9,000. Everybody is encouraged to come to Killyleagh this Saturday and Sunday for that. The St Patrick's Day Festival next year is due to get £30,000. <BR /> <BR />In all that, I am not counting the ongoing support that there will be for the likes of the Irish Open. That adds up to a considerable amount of support for events in the area, and that will draw visitors. The Festival of Flight is a good example, with thousands of people coming from all over Northern Ireland to Newcastle for that event and spending money in tourism businesses.”
“You can take one area in which the Department is providing funding, and the Member has taken support for tourism businesses. There are a considerable number of tourism businesses in the broad South Down constituency, many of which, owing to the nature of the constituency, are well established. Some of the other areas that the Member mentioned do not have the same level of development. <BR /> <BR />Take the Tourist Board's support for events in the Down area in this year alone. It supported the International Bread Festival at the National Trust property at Castle Ward with £18,000. The Festival of Flight, which I mentioned before, was a very successful event that attracted over 100,000 people to Newcastle. It was given £30,000 of support from the Tourist Board.”
“I was quite impressed, not just with the investment in events in the area and to assist our tourism economy but with the investment in the likes of Finnebrogue and others that was hoped to reap around 250 new jobs in the past year. So, there have been considerable attempts, if not always appreciated, to attract inward investment to some of the more peripheral parts of Northern Ireland and, more importantly, to try to grow indigenous companies that are embedded in those communities and are less likely to leave their area so that more opportunities can be created for local people, whether they are in deprived areas or not.”
“The Minister’s work and the Department's strategy are to try to bring investment into Northern Ireland globally. We want investment to be spread right across the country. This topic is regularly debated. There is hardly a Member who does not want more investment in his or her area, particularly the areas that have high levels of unemployment and deprivation. <BR /> <BR />Every effort will be made to show the wealth of opportunities across Northern Ireland for investment. I understand that it is sometimes difficult to get inward investment companies to look at all parts of Northern Ireland, but I know that the Minister is keen for it to happen. <BR /> <BR />I was pleasantly surprised when I looked at the figures for Down district, a district that, in part, I represent.”
“<BR /> <BR />There are huge opportunities, particularly for Newcastle, which has developed tremendously well over the past number of years with investment in a public realm scheme. It has attracted events such as the Festival of Flight, which I went to in early August, which shows that Newcastle is more than capable of holding its own and hosting major events. It will be a great host town and course for the Irish Open next year. <BR /> <BR />The whole Mourne area will benefit considerably from that event. Anybody who is interested in golf already knows that it is a great course. After it hosts the Irish Open, many more people will flock to Newcastle to play on that course and other courses in the area. That will bring a huge economic boost at the time and have a legacy for many years to come.”
“When the Member started off, I thought that he was talking about Ardglass Golf Club, a course that I used to play when I was young. In fact, in many respects, that course ruined my game. Anybody who has played it will understand why. <BR /> <BR />It is absolutely fantastic that the Irish Open is coming back not just to Northern Ireland but to Newcastle. Mr Wells is absolutely right. It is one thing for us to extol the virtues of Royal County Down or Royal Portrush, but time in, time out, Royal County Down is internationally recognised as one of the best golf courses in the whole world. It is one of Tiger Woods’s favourite courses, and he often drops in and plays unannounced if he is on these shores.”
“There are more public sector jobs in the Down district than in other parts of Northern Ireland: the average is 31%, and in the Down district at the minute, I think that it is 33%, which is slightly above average. <BR /> <BR />Like every area, the aspiration should be to increase the percentage of private sector jobs and not to rely on public sector jobs. Whilst public sector jobs are important, they are not the same driver of wealth and development as private sector jobs.”
“I attended and spoke at the launch of a brochure that Down District Council had in this Building. I think that Mr Hazzard sponsored the event. The document set out the benefits for attracting public sector jobs to the Down district area and particularly highlighted the public sector campus at the old Downshire Hospital site in Downpatrick. <BR /> <BR />Whilst I welcomed the brochure, at the launch, I said — I will say it again here, and I think that I said it in the Adjournment debate that Mr Hazzard secured — that, like any area, Down district should have more aspirations than just attracting public sector jobs. <BR /> <BR />The Member will be aware that her colleague the Minister of Agriculture indicated her intention to move some public sector jobs to Downpatrick.”
“This assistance included, for example, jobs fund support towards Finnebrogue, the local artisan food manufacturer, to grow and develop with the aim of creating 65 new jobs in Downpatrick.”
“I understand that the Enterprise Minister met representatives from Down District Council, including officials, in February this year to discuss jobs and investment in Down district. I know that the Minister found this meeting, which covered a diverse range of issues, useful and informative. I assure the Member that the Minister and her officials are doing all they can to promote new job opportunities in the area. <BR /> <BR />In the last financial year, Invest Northern Ireland offered nearly £2·2 million in assistance to companies located in the Down District Council area. This assistance will help to deliver total business investment of over £8·4 million into the area, promoting 255 new jobs.”
“I am sure that the Minister's officials will have heard that point being raised. Although it is first and foremost a transport policy issue, which would be one of Minister Donohue's remits, it has an impact on the economy. I am sure that the Minister, in that capacity, will be happy to raise it with the Enterprise Minister or the appropriate counterparts.”
“If their entry point is the Irish Republic and Dublin, it will help to bring them north of the border on trips to the Giant's Causeway or Titanic Belfast. Of course, as we know and as the Minister has said repeatedly from this position, the Titanic brand, after Coca-Cola, is the most recognised brand in the whole of China. There are huge opportunities for Northern Ireland if there is increased Chinese tourism, as all the indicators show there will be. Anything that helps to get those people north of the border, if they enter the South of Ireland, should be welcomed.”
“I thank the Member for his question. This is something that is quite interesting and even quite exciting. The Enterprise Minister is fully aware that the British-Irish visa scheme will launch this autumn. My understanding is that, under the first phase of the scheme, Indian and Chinese nationals applying in their country of origin will be able to visit the UK and Ireland using one visa, removing the need to apply for separate visas in each jurisdiction. That is transparently a good thing to have if it removes any doubt among visitors from India and China about where they can and cannot go. It is very good for Northern Ireland and will attract people from India and China, and I am sure that it will be expanded to other countries beyond that.”
“In that respect, while I am sure that she will want to learn from and work with her counterpart on a range of issues, she will still want Northern Ireland to pursue its own tourism strategy to sell the particular niche markets and specialities that we have in this part of the world.”
“As I said in my original response, the Minister has not had a chance to meet face to face the new Tourism Minister in the Irish Republic. I am sure that she will take the opportunity as soon as she can, and I am sure that she will want to discuss a range of issues around the subject of tourism. Without wishing to speak for the Minister or to pre-empt what she would discuss, I am pretty sure that her view would be similar to mine in that it is important that, while there are opportunities through Tourism Ireland to work together with our counterparts in the Irish Republic to market the whole of Ireland as a place for visitors to come to, there is a need for Northern Ireland to stand out and have its own strategy for attracting visitors here from all arts and parts.”
“The ETI Minister will meet the new Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Paschal Donohoe TD, in the coming weeks, as soon as diaries permit.”
“We want more connectivity into North America — absolutely — something into the Middle East — definitely — and more into mainland Europe, particularly the hub airports, and we will concentrate all our efforts on getting that. <BR /> <BR />Beyond that, it is very much a decision for the airlines and the airports themselves. Of course, we should not forget that the airports themselves have a route, and I am sure that I will get an opportunity in the not too distant future to meet the new managing director at the international airport. There is an onus on the airport as well, particularly with APD having been reduced to zero for long-haul flights. We have given that to them as an opportunity to go out and sell Northern Ireland. So, as well as DETI, they have a bit of work to do very much in conjunction with DETI.”
“The connectivity study will look at a range of factors. Trying to dovetail with our broader economic strategy is quite important, although getting an exact alignment between what we are pursuing in terms of inward investment and what routes we are able to get is not always easy. To some extent, it is a commercial decision; it is not driven by us. The airlines that brought, say, the Iceland and Lithuania routes will have seen an opportunity in Northern Ireland. We support and welcome that, but it is not necessarily a matter of us going out and being able to say, "We want that one and that one". There are lots that we want.”
“It certainly would be nice if it was done away with, but there are other factors. Sometimes selling the place and getting out and about in the way that the Minister is doing is, I would argue, as helpful as reducing APD.”
“The Executive pursued and got the power to reduce that to zero for long-haul flights, but, obviously, we would like to see it done away with for short-haul flights as well. <BR /> <BR />My Department and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment continue to work on an air connectivity study, which is very close to its conclusion. That will hopefully identify some opportunities to improve Northern Ireland's air access and will, of course, look at the question of APD. It will also look at other ways in which we can expand routes in and out of Northern Ireland, including better use of the regional connectivity fund, which I think is around £20 million and which the Chancellor announced in his recent Budget. <BR /> <BR />Sometimes there can be a fixation on APD as a silver bullet for all our connectivity problems.”
“The ETI Minister shares my position on air passenger duty, which is this: it is a tax that is not of our making and one that we would like to see done away with. The source of the tax is the Treasury in London. I think that there are ample studies and lots of evidence to show that it has a detrimental impact on connectivity into peripheral regions like Northern Ireland. That has been recognised by Treasury, which has given some allowance on APD for short-haul flights to the Highlands and Islands in Scotland. We would like to see that, as a minimum, extended to Northern Ireland, but, ideally, we would like to see the tax wiped out. Obviously, APD for long-haul flights is gone.”
“Vilnius, for example, is in the Baltic region, and the Minister and Invest Northern Ireland have been trying to increase trade into the area. There was a trade mission last year or earlier this year to the three Baltic states. Even though it may appear often to be marketed as a tourist route, there are business opportunities in that region. It is a growing area with huge opportunities for Northern Ireland businesses. I visited it and saw some of those opportunities for local firms. First impressions may be that they are focused on tourism, and, of course, some of the routes are, particularly those that were brought on board this summer, which are outward tourism routes. However, I think that the two mentioned in the question have commercial and tourism opportunities attached to them.”
“I do not disagree that we want to develop our air routes, particularly into hub airports across mainland Europe. The Member drew attention to a couple of destinations in his question, and I do not disagree with the likes of Berlin; in fact, Germany as a whole is a priority for the Department, whether it be Berlin, Frankfurt or other destinations. I am sure that the Member is aware of efforts to get a route to Istanbul because of the strategic significance of its location. <BR /> <BR />I agree in some respects with the Member, but I do not entirely agree that the routes into Reykjavik and Vilnius are without commercial or tourism potential. Both have, perhaps to a greater or lesser extent, tourism opportunities in both directions.”
“I thank the Member for his question. I welcome the recent announcements of new routes, including Iceland and Lithuania. I am also very aware that the ETI Minister is committed to improving Northern Ireland's air connectivity. She has already met the new managing director of Belfast International Airport and has also met a number of airlines to explore opportunities for improving our air access position. Indeed, she met a major airline during her recent visit to the United Arab Emirates. DETI officials are in regular dialogue with our airports and will support their route development endeavours by taking a Northern Ireland stand at the World Routes conference in Chicago later this month. However, discussions about specific routes and airlines are of a commercially sensitive and confidential nature.”