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Sam Gardiner MLA, Ulster Unionist Assemblyman for Upper Bann, today called on the Northern Ireland Executive to consider ways in which manufacturing could be boosted in the province.

“Craigavon, in my Upper Bann constituency, is one of the main manufacturing centres in Northern Ireland and I believe it provides a good model for the future industrial development of Northern Ireland. Consideration should be given to creating a special Enterprise Zone around the Craigavon industrial hub with special tax and rates concessions to further boost manufacturing.”

“In 2000 manufacturing stood at nearly 16% of the workforce with over 103,000 employees. Now it stands at just 12% of the workforce with just over 85,000 employees. At the same time service industries have grown from 75% of the workforce with 490,000 employees to 80% of the workforce with 566,000 employees.”

“Manufacturing is the wealth creating base where new goods are manufactured and sold on at added value, creating real wealth in the process. Without this new wealth, there is not the surplus money in the economy on which to base our service sector. The service sector is currently resting on a precarious base which has depended up to now on high levels of well paid public sector employment. With demands growing for a shift from public to private sector, the service sector could be adversely effected.”

“This would be a good time to re-configure our industrial profile. The Executive should be considering measures to boost manufacturing which is the only real wealth creator so that we do not become over-dependent on the service sector.”

“Jobs are welcome in any sector, of course, but the good thing about new manufacturing jobs is that they create the potential to create still further service sector jobs resting on the new earnings manufacturing generates, particularly if it is focussed on export.”

Ulster Unionist Assembly member for Fermanagh & South Tyrone, Tom Elliott MLA has called on the new Northern Ireland Assembly to demand that the Westminster Government provide a secure future for the hundreds of post offices in rural parts of Northern Ireland.

Tom said: “Following the announcement by Trade and Industry secretary, Alistair Darling last week that 2,500 post offices are to close by 2009 with the potential that as many as 200 post offices could close in Northern Ireland.

The figures show that the vast majority of post office closures will occur in the rural community and these post offices form the backbone of communities and provide essential services to the community. Uncertainty surrounds the exact number and location of closures, however, it is feared that the post office network in the most rural parts of Fermanagh & South Tyrone will be impacted upon.

Post offices play a very important role in many rural areas in Northern Ireland and figures show that 58% of those people over 55 get cash from the post office on a regular basis and that almost two-thirds of post office users (63%) live less than a mile away from their nearest post office. As one elderly rural dweller pointed out that due to PPS14 Government are now stopping our families building in the countryside, rural schools are being forced to close due to Bain report and now we will not get cash or mail posted in rural areas, this places the rural communities under even more threat and disadvantage.

What is required is a viable and robust strategy to support consumers and communities if post offices closures are going to be introduced and only a strategy that joins up policies of social and financial inclusion will work for consumers.

The envisaged timescale for the programme, to start in June and conclude within 18 months is unrealistic and should at this stage be suspended.

If Government want to sustain post offices in the long term, they must provide long term finances, rather than continually withdrawing services and making post offices un-profitable. Sadly, all the present post offices are left in limbo over this announcement and unsure of what their future is, until an announcement is made on which post offices are too close. Government must recognise the importance of post office services to rural parts of Northern Ireland”

Ulster Unionist Member of the European Parliament, Jim Nicholson MEP has warned today that a financial package for Northern Ireland cannot be brushed under the carpet by the First and Deputy First Minister and forgotten about.

Mr Nicholson was speaking as Sir David Varney; the man appointed by the Chancellor in March to lead a review of taxation in Northern Ireland is in the Province to discuss the issue of corporation tax.

In a statement Mr Nicholson said,

“Today is the second meeting of the power sharing Executive and yet still the final details of a financial package for Northern Ireland remain unresolved.

“Even as a Stormont committee heard yesterday that deferring water charges in Northern Ireland would cost £265m over the next three years, there is still no final indication as to how much a financial package will be worth or whether Northern Ireland is even getting one.

“Because securing a financial package is so important to Northern Ireland’s future economic success the issue is going to keep coming up again and again until we get results from the First and Deputy First Minister. They can’t simply brush it under the carpet and hope that it will be forgotten about. Leaving aside the well rehearsed arguments for a reduction in corporation tax, nothing is more important than Dr Paialey and Mr McGuinness delivering on this.

“It wasn’t so long ago that the First Minister was threatening not to enter and Executive at Stormont until he got a financial package that met his expectations. Now he must put his money where his mouth is and put an end to the charade that has been the Paisley/McGuinness negotiations with the Treasury, which to date have been characterised by spin and a host of false impressions. Perhaps collective action by the Executive is the best way forward.”

Rev Dr Robert Coulter MLA, Ulster Unionist Health Spokesman, who successfully sponsored a private member’s bill proposing a new category of crime - with increased punishments for attacks on doctors, nurses, health workers and social workers- in the Assembly on Tuesday said today that he was now writing to First Minister Ian Paisley to demand that the bill be made law here when policing and justice powers are devolved.

“The measure I proposed was passed unanimously by the Assembly. This means that this is not only the will of the Assembly but it is a law and order measure agreed by the whole Assembly and by all parties. I will, therefore, be writing to the First Minister, Dr Ian Paisley, to ask him to raise the matter in the Executive with a view to the Executive bringing in an Executive Bill when policing and justice powers are devolved to the Assembly. At that point, when the Assembly has the competence to deal with this, there can be no doubt now that this will become the law.”

“This will send a clear signal to the yobs who attacks nurses, doctors, health workers, social workers, ambulance workers and fire fighters that they will now face nine months in jail. Attacks on health workers never happened in the past and this is a new category of crime. It is unacceptable in any civilised society and now the Assembly is saying clearly that they will not tolerate it. The days when yobs could do what they like are now coming to an end. I am glad to have been the proposer of the bill which will bring this about.”

Ulster Unionist MEP Jim Nicholson has said that today that the European Parliament has delivered a victory for consumers in Northern Ireland after MEPs voted today to slash the cost of using your mobile phone abroad.

Mr Nicholson said the proposals, which must be approved by the European Commission and EU telecommunication Ministers could cut so called mobile phone roaming charges by up to 75%. The cost of calling home from another EU state would be set at a maximum of 49 euro cents (£0.34) and 24 cents (£0.16) to receive a call.

Speaking from Strasbourg Mr Nicholson said,

“Today’s vote means that people from Northern Ireland who are in Europe on business or on holiday will now be protected from excessive roaming charges and from returning home to find a nasty surprise on their mobile phone bill. This, I believe, is a massive victory for consumers in Northern Ireland.

“It was important for the EU to get a grip on this issue and deliver real results for consumers who have been hit hard over the years by the spiralling costs of using their mobile phone abroad. It is a perfect example of how Europe can be a force for good when it focuses on things that really matter to people.

“If we were genuinely supposed to be in a single market, then we shouldn’t have been penalised in such a harsh way when we crossed a border and used our mobile phone in a different European country.

“People already pay enough for their holidays and shouldn’t be hit with more high charges for using a mobile abroad. Hopefully we will now see an end to the ridiculous situation where sometimes the mobile phone bill was higher than the hotel bill.

“I hope that the European Commission and EU Telecommunications Ministers approve these plans as soon as possible so that holiday makers can take full  advantage of lower call charges before they jet off abroad for their summer holidays.”

Basil McCrea, Ulster Unionist MLA for Lagan Valley today raised the issue of triple and even quadruple jobbing NI politicians paid by the public purse. Mr McCrea said he suspected that some Assembly Committee timings have been designed to accomodate sitting MPs.

In a statement Mr McCrea said,

“Many local politicians serve as MLAs, Chairmen of Committees, MPs, and Councillors.  How can anyone really be in London, Stormont, and Council chambers at the same time? Clearly they can’t be and I suspect that some Assembly Committees are meeting at times designed to accommodate MPs. This is unacceptable and gives the impression that many of the MPs view the Assembly as a second choice institution.

In addition to the expenses involved, the public purse will pick up the tab for flying the MP between London and Belfast for a single vote or committee meeting.  This is not exactly environmentally friendly.

There is a long list of triple or quadruple jobbing politicians here. How can anyone really serve as an effective representative covering so many roles? It’s impossible and it cheats the electorate of proper representation.

Clearly the issue of triple and even Quadruple jobbing NI politicians is a real one that should be address by the NI Assembly. The Scottish and Welsh media have ensured the issue of double jobbing MP’s is addressed.  I would urge similar scrutiny in the Northern Ireland Assembly and round the Executive table.”

Ulster Unionist Deputy Leader and Member of the Executive Review Committee, Danny Kennedy, today said premature speculation about the demise of departments to make way for a Department of Policing and Justice was “unwise, unhelpful and unsettling to officials employed in the departments”.

Mr Kennedy also stated that it remained the UUP’s view that devolving Policing and Justice Powers by next May was premature and the public was not ready for such a move.

In a statement Mr Kennedy said,

“The Committee met yesterday and will be looking at making room for an eventual department of policing and justice. The UUP remains to be convinced that devolving policing and justice should happen by May 2008. We feel it is very premature and public confidence is not high enough to permit such a move.

Any move carries with it an adjustment to the current departments. The Committee will no doubt be looking at a number of significant options, some of these include DCAL and the DOE which is finding much of its remit being devolved to local councils. Both of these departments also have relatively small budgets when compared to other departments. The Committee might also consider the amalgamation of the DFP into OFMDFM. All of these options, and indeed others, will be considered in due course.

Nothing has been set in stone as yet. There is by no means any fait accompli. This is why speculation from unnamed sources surrounding departments is unwise, unhelpful and unsettling to officials within those departments.”

Ulster Unionist Deputy Leader Danny Kennedy has voiced his hope that the new Southern Health and Social Care Trust will hit the ground running and “bring about many opportunities to work more efficiently”.

Mr Kennedy was speaking at a reception for Southern Health and Social Care Trust at Parliament buildings on Monday afternoon. This introductory event was attended by MLAs from across all political parties and was designed to raise awareness of the work of the new trust.

In a statement, the Newry & Armagh MLA, who sponsored the event, said: “We are all familiar with the unprecedented change which is currently underway in health and social services as a result of the Review of Public Administration. Inevitably this will bring about many opportunities to work more efficiently but will also present new challenges to overcome.

“The UUP’s new Minister for Health, Michael McGimpsey, has taken on this portfolio and is well aware of the demands as well as the exciting times ahead.”

He added: “The new senior team in the Southern Trust has stressed they will operate an open-door policy to facilitate what is hoped will be the beginning of good working relationships. This is to be welcomed. I look forward to working with the trust toward ensuring a more efficient and effective service is delivered within the area.”

At the reception, Health Department Permanent Secretary Dr Andrew McCormick outlined his views on priority areas. Chairman of the Southern Trust Anne Balmer and Chief Executive Colm Donaghy also highlighted challenges and developments specific to the Southern Trust.

Following on from today’s motion on a Single Equality Bill in Stormont, Ulster Unionist Chief Whip David McNarry has said:

“It is with deep regret that the Ulster Unionist Party today witnessed the intemperate rhetoric from the Sinn Fein Assembly benches that many in Northern Ireland had hoped was a thing of the past. Our Assembly Group – in the best traditions of parliamentary democracy – approached the debate with an open-mind, willing to support the principle of a Single Equality Bill.

“However, as the debate progressed it became clear that Sinn Fein MLAs regarded the motion as an opportunity to vent outdated prejudices. What should have been a measured, thoughtful debate by the Northern Ireland Assembly on equality legislation for the 21st century became nothing more than biased finger-wagging by Sinn Fein representatives.

“As my colleagues stated in the Chamber, the UUP is committed to equality of opportunity for all in Northern Ireland. We want a Single Equality Bill that secures an equality agenda for the 21st century – guaranteeing equality for women, the disabled, ethnic minorities and older people.

“Sinn Fein’s inability to promote consensus within the Assembly is a worrying indication of future developments both within the Assembly and OFMDFM.”

UUP Party Officer Kenny Donaldson has urged the public to guard against the dangers of drink spiking.

Mr Donaldson made the call after it was revealed that since the ban on smoking in public places, reported incidents of drink spiking have increased in a number of towns and cities throughout Northern Ireland.

In a statement, Kenny said: “It would appear that in many pubs and clubs, drinks are being left unattended whilst people pop outside to have a cigarette. Whilst they are away it would seem that unscrupulous opportunists are tampering with their drink.

“We have all heard about people who have had their drink spiked with drugs. People have suffered sexual assault, been the victims of a mugging or other theft related crime. My message is simple – do not leave your drink unattended for any reason and where possible, consume alcohol in moderation so as to ensure that you are in possession of your wits. Guard against falling vulnerable prey for opportunistic predators.

“I would also call upon the Courts to serve out harsher punishments upon those who carry out the crime of drink-spiking. A strong message needs sending that this crime will not be tolerated and that those perpetrating the act will receive, lengthy custodial sentences,” concluded Kenny.