Phil Flanagan
Fermanagh and South Tyrone · Sinn Féin · Northern Ireland
“I thank the Minister for his answer. There is an old guise that you should never ask a question that you do not know the answer to. The question that I submitted asked the Minister how many social houses had been started in the 2015-16 financial year, but somehow it was changed.”
“I thank the Minister for his attempt to answer the question. I put him on notice that it was not he who initiated the process, but I am looking for him to intervene and stop it as a locally elected representative. <BR /> <BR />There are roughly 1,000 people on the housing waiting list in Fermanagh, and nearly 300 of those are in stress.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire as ucht a fhreagra. I thank the Minister for his answer. The licence has not been extended, but does the Minister accept that the decision to extend InfraStrata's time frame for a work programme sets a dangerous precedent on fracking, particularly given that InfraStrat…”
“How does the Minister square that with the ministerial involvement of his predecessor, Nelson McCausland, interfering in where social houses are built for political, parading or electoral reasons.”
“I thank the Minister for giving way, and I have no difficulty in supporting this request for information sharing, but I have two short questions. First, he said that this is a tax on employment. Does he have any sort of a headline figure as to what the scale of the financial implications of this will be for local employers?”
“<BR /> <BR />Requirements are now being placed on the Department with regard to careers. That is a very positive development that the Minister brought forward after the Committee initiated a review of careers advice, which was then followed up by a piece of work that the Minister commissioned from an expert group on careers.”
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“He gave the specific example of going into a shop and providing his house number and postcode. The address generated, using a computer, often excluded his townland, as that field of the address is left out due to spacing issues on an envelope or a label. Often, it is done because these mailing companies send out tens of thousands of letters a day, and if they can remove one line from the address, it will save them a significant sum of money. The danger is that, if a line is going to be left out, it will be the townland name, which most of us hold very dear and want to see protected and sustained. Unfortunately, because there is no protection in law for townlands, that is not possible. <BR /> <BR />From my perspective, that is the crux of the problem: the fact that the townland will be left out if anything is going to be left out.”
“Yolland and Owen work to translate local place names into English for the purposes of the map. "Druim Dubh", meaning "black shoulder" in Irish, becomes "Dromduff" in English, and "Poll na gCaorach", meaning "hole of the sheep" in Irish, becomes "Poolkerry". While Owen has no qualms about anglicising the names of places that form part of his heritage, Yolland, who is not actually from Ireland but has fallen in love with the place, is unhappy with what he perceives as a destruction of Irish culture and language. <BR /> <BR />David Ford, in his contribution to the debate in 2001, summed up perfectly what the problem with the current situation was, and, indeed, it remains to be the problem today. He highlighted the fact that Royal Mail and other such organisations will simply tolerate the use of townlands but not encourage it.”
“As we all know, Mr Shannon takes great interest in culture and heritage. I think that his comments about where townland names derive from and their meaning were very useful for all of us in providing the context for the significance that many of us, particularly those of us who live in rural communities, attach to our townland names. <BR /> <BR />The eradication of our local culture and history was well evidenced in Brian Friel's play 'Translations', which deals with the anglicisation of traditional place names from Irish to English in Donegal in the 1830s. The main characters in the play are working on the six-inch-to-the-mile map survey of Ireland for the Ordnance Survey, and a character called Owen acts as a translator and go-between for the English and Irish.”
“That seems to be in line with what I am proposing today. That is what he wanted to see, and that is what a number of Members wanted in 2001. The simple, pragmatic solution for those of us who claim to want to support townlands is to allow councils to number properties in townlands and put the townland above the road name. <BR /> <BR />Jim Shannon said:”
“This proposed legislative change would not make the solution any more challenging for those people, and I suggest to Members that the best way to establish this would be to engage with the emergency services through the Committee Stage of the Bill to explore whether this actually is an issue or not. <BR /> <BR />DUP MLA Oliver Gibson, who revealed that Sudan also used townlands, suggested:”
“It will allow people to find properties more easily, but it will mean that we are not overly reliant on local knowledge and have a good balance of technology and local knowledge if you say that you are looking for a particular townland as opposed to looking for house number 297 on a particular road. <BR /> <BR />There are many roads across the North that are 13 miles long, if not longer, and, if an ambulance driver or a firefighter were looking for a property in an emergency, they genuinely would not have a notion where the house was without either some level of local knowledge or using GPS technology.”
“<BR /> <BR />Some Members may attempt to justify their opposition by raising the emergency services as an issue, but I want to put that issue to bed now and say that it is not a problem because most, if not all, emergency service vehicles and, indeed, individuals who are delivering goods to households and businesses will now use GPS technology or some form of satellite navigation system to find out where they are going and to get the quickest or shortest route. Allowing this change to go through will not impact on the use of satnav technology and the use of GPS systems, because each property will retain its unique property reference number through the Pointer system, which will then be given to the GPS and satnav organisations to direct people to the quickest or shortest way to finding a property.”
“He said that, without knowing the townland in question, it is often impossible to find a property using the number and the road name because these roads go on for 10 or 15 miles and, unless you know where the numbers are, you might know which side of the road it is on, but it could be four miles away, 100 yards away or eight miles away. Unless you know the townland that it is in, local knowledge is not going to solve that problem.”
“I think that that was a very fair comment, and that issue was raised at the Environment Committee when I appeared at it. <BR /> <BR />It is clear that some Members are going to flag up a potential issue as a red herring: that this policy change, if it is approved by the Assembly and enacted by a local authority, may present a difficulty for emergency services. However, during that same debate 14 years ago, Mr McGrady highlighted the fact that, in 2001, problems existed for ambulance drivers not being able to find a property on a 10-mile-long road.”
“If Belfast City Council does not want to do it, I will not force it to do it. It is up to it whether it wants to do it or not. With legislation of this nature, where we are transferring the power to a local authority to make a decision, it is up to those councillors, and to the experts who they have employed in building control, to decide what system suits their needs best. I think that that is the approach that we need to take. <BR /> <BR />I want to highlight a number of the comments that were made by Members in 2001. Mr McCarthy will speak for himself, hopefully, so I will not rehash anything that he said. Mr McGrady said:”
“The motion had an impact in that material coming out from Stormont now includes the townland of Ballymiscaw, but I think that the issue is much greater than any literature, post, emails or communication coming from the Assembly as an institution. It is a much bigger problem than that, and I think that this small legislative change would help to further protect and promote townlands. It is not the panacea. It is not a total solution, but I think that it is better than what we have at the minute. <BR /> <BR />It is clear that some councils want to adopt this change. Not all councils are going to do it, but I repeat that I am not forcing a council to do anything that it does not want to do. Belfast City Council has clearly indicated that it does not want to make this legislative change, and that is fine.”
“The change that we are trying to bring in will have the townland as the principal part of the address, so that, if anything was going to be dropped from the address, it would not be the townland. That was the complaint that Members had in 2001, but it is the complaint that society has had since the 1970s. While the Bill would not produce a solution overnight and ensure that townlands would be retained in addresses, it would do something much more pragmatic and give councils the opportunity to number properties in a townland and ensure that the townland appears at the top of the address. <BR /> <BR />Since 2001, there has been little improvement in the promotion of townlands in most areas. I think that we would all agree that much greater action needs to be taken to promote and protect townlands.”
“It was a non-binding motion asking Departments to use townlands in their correspondence, but correspondence from Departments is only one small aspect of it. <BR /> <BR />Changes have been made so that townlands are now included in the Pointer system, which is another important step in acknowledging that the townlands are there, but they are not always used. We have seen examples of people being issued with a driving licence and, because the licence is so small, their townland is often left out. When there are only three, four or five lines to use, people have their house number, road name, town, county and postcode, and there is no space left. It is looked at very pragmatically, and if anything is going to be left out it will be the townland because it is not the principal part of one's address.”
“It would better protect and promote townlands, and allowing it to progress to Committee Stage would allow all those who are interested in saving townlands to bring forward their opinions and suggestions about what changes need to take place to ensure that townlands are not lost for ever. <BR /> <BR />As Mr McCarthy indicated, the Alliance Party tabled a motion in the House in October 2001, calling for each Department to adopt a policy of using and promoting townland names in all government correspondence and official documents. The motion was, of course, passed without any objections from Members. Members from all parties stood up and spoke in favour of retaining townlands. In reality, little has changed.”
“— the Department of Finance and Personnel. From my point of view, it is a straightforward policy change, and I encourage Members to approach it with an open mind. <BR /> <BR />I appeared at the Environment Committee last Thursday week and discussed the issue with Members from all parties. They all claimed to be supportive of townlands, but I hear feedback that some Members will vote against this proposal, which is changing the legislation to allow councils to better protect and promote townlands. I see the Bill as a progressive Bill that has a simple aim and objective.”
“The amendment would allow the townland name to be placed first in the address and to become the principal part of the address. The Bill also states that, if a council chooses to prioritise the townland name:”
“I have also engaged with the director of mapping services in LPS to ensure that the Bill did not have any problematic points for LPS or DFP, which manages the Pointer address database. I am content that it does not, although I hear that some in DFP and the political management in that Department are not supportive of the Bill. That is no real surprise to me, because, when the Finance Minister was Environment Minister, her party colleagues from Fermanagh District Council wrote to her to ask her to make this change, and she refused to do it. I am not entirely surprised that Mrs Foster remains opposed to the Bill. <BR /> <BR />The Bill would provide councils with the option of numbering individual properties in townlands instead of on roads or in streets. It does not require them to do anything unless they wish to do so.”
“The old Fermanagh District Council's preferred option was that this exact change in policy would be made. The council wrote to successive Environment Ministers asking for the change to be made, but that request was rejected. I now seek to progress this legislative change through a private Member's Bill. I have consulted DOE officials, as well as the Minister, with regard to previous concerns about the Bill, and, in my view, the concerns and objections that emanated from DOE have now been addressed as a result of the requirement for councils to take account of guidance issued by DFP on how to implement a policy of allocating property numbers in a townland-based or non-linear system.”
“<BR /> <BR />Fermanagh people were proud to be able to say that their county was the exception to the rule as a result of the council's policy of using townlands as the basis of allocating addresses. Everybody in the county knew what their townland was because their address was based on it. There was no confusion about where you lived or where you got your identity from in your townland. However, due to the advancements in technology that I have mentioned and the change in the way in which businesses operate, the previous system was not sustainable, and some form of change was required.”
“When speaking to people across the North as part of the public consultation, it is clear that there is a strong demand for the greater promotion and protection of townlands. I carried out a consultation exercise on the policy behind the Bill in September and October 2012. Over 80 responses to the consultation were received, including responses from individuals, groups involved in culture and heritage, political parties and local councils. The majority of respondents were supportive of the proposed change and of the greater use of townlands in society and in the address-based system. The reason behind that is that there is much concern about the declining use of townlands. Our townlands are in a very perilous state.”
“As I said, many people across the North have lamented the fact that the usage of townlands has largely ceased since the policy change of the early 1970s. The proposed change before the House today will allow councils, if they wish, to put townlands back in use as the principal part of addresses.”
“The introduction of the road name-based system has largely dealt with some of those problems, but the knock-on effect has been the diminution of the use of townlands within common language and the threat that, because we do not have townlands at the heart of our addresses, future generations will not know or understand what their townland is. That is a huge concern for me, as it is for many other people in our society. <BR /> <BR />Despite the fact that the policy has now changed in the council — Fermanagh District Council previously enacted this policy which the 25 other councils had at the time — there remains a strong desire among the councillors on Fermanagh and Omagh District Council and in the population of Fermanagh to restore townlands to their former glory as the predominant part of the addresses of our properties.”
“There was never a demand to move away from a townland-based system. It was a very reluctant council that made that decision. <BR /> <BR />In my previous life, I spent far too much time on hold to credit checking agencies and other organisations trying to explain the uniqueness of the townland-based system in Fermanagh to people who were often based in the south of England, if they were that close. That was a huge problem for people: trying to get something as simple as a credit card, a mortgage or s mobile phone contract or ordering something from one of the multinational retailers online for home delivery caused huge problems. With the way in which technology has advanced, those should be fairly straightforward things for people to access. The whole reason why it was changed was to address those problems.”
“People were sick, sore and tired of not being able to order products for home delivery or pass a credit check, as the previous system was not compatible with that of the credit checking agencies. The way in which those credit checks and home deliveries work is that you simply type in your house number and postcode. Using the Pointer system that Land and Property Services (LPS) operates, a unique property reference number is generated which then ties you to that property and allows credit checking agencies to ensure that you have a good credit record. It also enables GPS-based systems to allow satnav to find addresses very quickly. That was the problem in Fermanagh. That is why there was a call to implement a system whereby people could access credit and order things online and where a satnav-based system would work.”
“However, Fermanagh District Council reluctantly moved to adopt a system of road names after a lengthy policy of internal debate amongst councillors of all parties. That policy was enacted on 1 February 2013. The decision to introduce a road name-based system was not taken lightly by the council and was taken only because current legislation does not allow the numbering of properties in a townland-based system. The council also agreed at the time to continue campaigning for the minor legislative change that I propose today. <BR /> <BR />As someone who used to run a business that was heavily reliant on the ability of individuals and businesses to pass credit checks, I understand why there was a desire by some in the county for a change to be made, but there was never a demand for the abandonment of the townland-based system.”
“The Local Government Act 1972, which constituted the district councils to administer the 26 local government districts created by the Local Government Boundaries Act 1971 and abolish the existing local authorities at the time, saw the introduction of road names for the first time, at the expense of the more widely recognised townland system. The introduction of a formal system of road names was adopted by 25 of the 26 councils. Fermanagh District Council stood alone in retaining townlands, with universal support from councillors from all political parties locally. During the 2001 debate, Members from all parties supported the stance of Fermanagh District Council in preserving townlands and using them as the principal part of the address.”
“<BR /> <BR />In the last number of months, when doing a bit of research on finalising the work on the Bill, I discovered something that many Members who were here for the debate in 2001 will be aware of, but which caught me by surprise: Oliver Gibson, a DUP MLA, revealed that the townland system was also in operation in Sudan. I was not aware of that. I am not sure whether they copied us or we copied them. I have never been to Sudan, but I have no reason to doubt Mr Gibson in that regard. I hope that the people of Sudan find the townland system working well for them. <BR /> <BR />The issues surrounding townlands have been somewhat controversial, in some parts, over recent decades.”
“Ireland was historically divided into four provinces — Ulster, Munster, Leinster and Connaught — which were then separated into counties. Those counties were further broken down into baronies which, in turn, were split into parishes, with each parish made up of a number of townlands. Across Ireland, there are 61,098 townlands, 16,400 of which are in the province of Ulster. There are 1,756 townlands in Antrim, 967 in Armagh, 2,010 in Cavan, 1,282 in Derry, 2,737 in Donegal, 1,336 in Down, 2,300 in Fermanagh, 2,181 in Tyrone and 1,850 in Monaghan. So, as you can see from each of those nine counties, townlands have considerable significance in each county, but some counties have a better record than others in promoting and protecting them.”
“My proposal would not address that in totality, but it would provide an opportunity for some councils, where there is an appetite for it, to put townlands back at the heart of the addressing system — to allow people to understand what their address is, based on a townland system. That is what this proposal is about. I am not standing here telling you that this is going to be the solution to the eradication of townlands. All this does is provide councils with a mechanism by which they can offer and allocate addresses based on the townland system instead of the road name system, which was much lamented in 1973 by members from all parties. <BR /> <BR />I will return to my speech, Kieran, if you do not mind.”
“<BR /> <BR />I contend that the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development including the townland when it issues single farm payment forms or sends letters to farmers notifying them that they are having an inspection or getting a fine or penalty of some kind — and it nearly always is — would be much better than the Assembly, as a corporate institution, using the townland. So there has been some positive progress made over the last 14 years, as a result of the motion that the Alliance Party brought and of the work that the Culture, Arts and Leisure Committee engaged in previously, but we are not there yet. <BR /> <BR />Unfortunately, despite all of that work, townlands are still not as prominent as they need to be.”
“I thank the Member for his intervention. The debate that he and his now party leader brought on 1 October 2001 is something that I will reference later. I accept what the Member has said about there being unanimous support across the Chamber and society for the greater usage of townlands, particularly in the addressing system. The Assembly, under the stewardship of your predecessor, Mr Speaker, made great strides by adding the townland of Ballymiscaw to its address. It is right and proper that all correspondence emanating from this Building uses that townland, but I do not know how we can judge the extent to which the use of its townland name by this one institution, which does not correspond that much with people, protects and promotes townlands.”
“In doing so, it would allow councils, if they so wish, to allocate numbers to properties based on the system of townlands rather than by road, which is the only way that it can be done under the current legislation. The Bill would amend the Local Government (Miscellaneous Provisions) Order 1995 to make provision about the allocation of numbers to buildings and the format of addresses. <BR /> <BR />Over the three years that I have been working on the Bill, I have engaged with some Members who did not know what a townland is never mind what their own townland is, so I think that it would be useful if I provide a brief overview of what a townland is and where it comes from.”
“In many counties on this island, there is a strong sense of townlands playing a crucial part in that identity but, in some parts, it is stronger than in others. In places like Fermanagh, where addresses were historically organised on the basis of the townland system, the notion, understanding and usage of townlands among the common language is very strong. At this stage, I pose this question to Members: are Members content with the level of usage of townlands in their area or constituency, or do they want to see further changes made to how we promote, protect and indeed save the use of townlands? <BR /> <BR />The purpose of the Bill is to protect townlands.”
“The identity that we all get from our collective townlands is something that all of us, across society, are deeply proud of and attached to. <BR /> <BR />Across Ireland, townlands are an important part of our shared history. They were an integral part of how this nation was subdivided for the purposes of administration of government and also identity. Most people are proud of the identity given to us by our home village or town or even city. Even those of us who come from Fermanagh are proud of the county or province that we come from. Those of us who know what townland we come from are proud of it also. <BR /> <BR />Travelling around Ireland, I, like other Members, often get a good sense from people of how they identify themselves.”
“<BR /> <BR />From my perspective, a Cheann Comhairle, this is a very simple and straightforward Bill, but the positive consequences of the change are potentially significant. As a Fermanagh man, I am acutely aware of the significance of townlands to many of our citizens. As someone who is proud of my own culture and heritage, I know that the townlands that we come from and live in are an important part of who we are and how we identify ourselves. <BR /> <BR />I am proud to come from the townland of Tullymore, the big bog. There are not too many people who say that they are proud to come from a bog, but I suppose it is the use of townlands that allow us to have wee misnomers like that in society. Tullymore is on the shores of Lough Erne outside the village of Garrison in County Fermanagh.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a Cheann Comhairle. I am delighted to move the Bill's Second Stage and ask that a debate now be heard. At the outset, I want to thank all those people, particularly the staff in the Assembly's Bill Office, who have helped me through the formulation of the policy and the drafting of the Bill itself. It has been a long process, and I am glad that it has finally got to this stage. At one stage, I feared that we would never get this far. Thankfully, we are now at the Second Stage debate, in which Members from all parties can have their say on the issue, articulate what they think about the proposal in the Bill, and speak about the wider issue of the promotion and protection of townlands.”
“I thank the Minister for giving way. He is getting very personal in his remarks. He makes these comments that what was said about the 30,000 jobs are not his words. If they are not your words, come up with some of your own, because they are the only solutions that you are offering, Minister. What have you got for the energy crisis? What have you got for regional disparity? What have you got for the growing cost-of-living crisis? You have not got anything. All that you have got is corporation tax, and that is not the solution to the problems that we face here and now.”
“I thank the Member for giving way. I am going to answer his first question, which is what I wanted to intervene about. Some 40% of the jobs went into the Belfast City Council area, which has 18% of the population, so Belfast is certainly doing better than its population would lead you to believe. <BR /> <BR />Regarding your other comment, I did not specify any one individual as being behind it. I said that it is a mindset among unionist politicians, but if the perception that the Member has is that I was alleging that the former Enterprise Minister was doing that, that is regrettable.”
“It will simply focus the minds in Invest NI on the need to do more for the areas that have been neglected since the foundation of this state. Putting a target for performance in Invest NI is completely different from a quota. I am not advocating that we put a quota on the number of jobs that go to Belfast or any other area. I am merely asking that the Assembly, when it is considering items for the next Programme for Government, puts in targets for each area that Invest NI should work towards. That will not deter investment. It will change mindsets in Invest NI and, hopefully, in the private sector. I hope that Members are pragmatic enough to see that.”
“That was a cross-party agreement in the Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment's recent inquiry into the economy. Unless we take action, the same problem will persist. It should not be tolerated, particularly by those in the House who claim to want to rebalance our economy. Perhaps when they talk about rebalancing our economy, they are actually talking about cutting public expenditure. That is what that phrase means when some people use it. What rebalancing our economy should mean is facilitating balanced economic growth across the North. That should be our collective objective. <BR /> <BR />Putting in place subregional targets will not deter investment. No matter how many times we hear it, it is not true.”
“<BR /> <BR />According to a new study by the TUC, the number of commuters who spend two hours or more each day stuck behind the wheel or on public transport just getting to and from their workplaces soared to more than 47,000 people. The Minister stood up at Question Time and said that 40% of people work in a neighbouring constituency so we cannot set subregional job targets. That is the biggest load of nonsense that I ever heard. Just because somebody works somewhere else, why can you not have a target for Invest NI to support jobs in a particular area? <BR /> <BR />We need to take action to address the problem. The action that we need to take in the short term is to include concrete targets for the Executive and Invest NI for subregional job creation.”
“I was not elected by the people of Fermanagh to stand idly by — nor were other Members — and allow another generation of our young people to be forced to flee the county in search of employment, whether in Belfast, Dublin, England, America, Canada or Australia. It is long past time for appropriate action to be taken to address this shameful trend. The number of workers from rural communities, particularly in the construction sector, who spend every Sunday evening or Monday morning sitting in an airport waiting to catch a flight to England for a week's work is a shameful indictment of our failure to create balanced subregional growth.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. The Minister never took his fingers out of his ears to assess the nonsense message that somebody had given him to parrot and parrot and parrot. <BR /> <BR />We live in a society with a two-tier economy. There is greater Belfast, and then there is everywhere else. Are we a regional Assembly for greater Belfast, or are we something else? It is time that we stepped up to the plate and dealt with areas that are not within the greater Belfast circle. We cannot allow the trend of a two-tier economy to continue. The golden circle around Belfast attracts the vast bulk of investment at the expense of other areas.”
“Go raibh maith agat, a LeasCheann Comhairle. So, the ETI Minister talks about corporation tax being the solution for the manufacturing crisis, as almost Pontius Pilate-like he washes his hands of the loss of 860 jobs. I am sure that his colleagues in north Antrim are grateful for this blissful ignorance as he runs around with his fingers in his ears ignoring the warnings that emanated from Michelin more than two years ago, that came from the Committee for Enterprise, Trade and Investment for over two years and that have been coming from the trade union movement for several months, as he stood up and repeated ad nauseam his claim that a reduced rate of corporation tax was the solution for businesses that were not making a profit. At any stage —”
“<BR /> <BR />There has been much talk of a proposed reduction in corporation tax being the solution for our economic woes. Would a reduced rate of corporation tax address or compound the problem of regional disparity? We need to take informed, evidence-based decisions in that regard. <BR /> <BR />I witnessed the ETI Minister spoofing the Chamber last week about the need to set a date and rate for corporation tax, as if that were going to be the solution for the manufacturing crisis.”
“<BR /> <BR />Some Members may well rise to deny once more that a problem exists, even Members who left Fermanagh many years ago to get a job in the greater Belfast area. There was a commitment in the Programme for Government 2011-15 to address regional imbalance. <BR /> <BR />The establishment of the ministerial subgroup on regional opportunities has done initial exploratory work on the Derry area. I would like to hear news about what it is actually doing and when we can see that group beginning to look at the specific challenges facing rural communities and how we can create employment for our citizens, particularly to stem the growing demographic changes in our society — the wholesale movement of people from rural to urban communities and the problems we face with emigration.”
“If the North is already on the periphery as a result of the emanation of economic policies from London, imagine how much more peripheral areas west of the Bann and along the border corridor are. The threatened withdrawal from the European Union would only worsen this as any existing opportunities for cross-border cooperation and harmonisation using EU mechanisms would be removed. <BR /> <BR />Official statistics for disposable income, low pay, levels of economic inactivity and long-term unemployment are also comparably worse in peripheral areas such as Fermanagh and Omagh, Derry and Strabane, and the Causeway Coast and glens. While our overall unemployment rate is falling steadily, it is remaining steady for long-term unemployment.”
“Invest NI has seen record performance in the greater Belfast area but that is not shared across the North. <BR /> <BR />Recently published Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures on the number of workers being paid below the living wage revealed that our three council areas with the highest number of workers being paid below the living wage are the Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council, with 39·9%; Fermanagh and Omagh District Council, with 38·9%; and Mid Ulster District Council with 37·4%. Over 200,000 workers here — or 28% — are paid below the living wage, far higher than any region in Britain. <BR /> <BR />A recent OECD report on the border region found that the North:”
“<BR /> <BR />Regardless, with the inability or refusal of successive ETI Ministers to address the growing problem of uncompetitive energy prices for intensive users, Invest NI openly admits that it does not even bother trying to attract manufacturing companies any more. So, we are left with call centres and other service centre jobs, which are invariably based in large urban areas. <BR /> <BR />It would be wrong of me not to welcome the recent announcement of 800 jobs in a call centre in Enniskillen, jobs that will pay below the living wage. However, jobs of that nature will not bring our people home. <BR /> <BR />A report for the Scottish Executive last year indicated that the North does well in attracting inward investment but that it tends to be lower-value inward investment.”
“I will not, William, no. <BR /> <BR />It is convenient for unionist politicians that those 2,000 people, most of them young, are no longer in Fermanagh to vote, as the census and other figures point to a growing younger population from the nationalist community. <BR /> <BR />West of the Bann and along the border are the areas with the worst road and rail networks, telecoms infrastructure, sewerage, water and electricity grid services. There is also inadequate provision of social and affordable housing and an absence of higher education provision for the most part, despite there being a sufficient population on both sides of the border to sustain such services.”