OFFICIAL REPORT (Hansard)
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Ad Hoc Committee on the COVID-19 Response OFFICIAL REPORT (Hansard) Ministerial Statement: Economy 11 June 2020 NORTHERN IRELAND ASSEMBLY Ad Hoc Committee on the COVID-19 Response Ministerial Statement: Economy 11 June 2020 Members present for all or part of the proceedings: Mr Roy Beggs (Deputy Chairperson) Dr Steve Aiken Mr Jim Allister Dr Caoimhe Archibald Mr Cathal Boylan Mr Gerry Carroll Mr Pat Catney Mrs Diane Dodds Mr Gordon Dunne Ms Sinéad Ennis Mr Harry Harvey Mr David Hilditch Mr Chris Lyttle Mr Declan McAleer Mr Daniel McCrossan Mr Colin McGrath Mr Philip McGuigan Ms Sinead McLaughlin Mr Justin McNulty Mr Gary Middleton Mr Andrew Muir Mr Mike Nesbitt Mr Matthew O'Toole Mr John Stewart Ms Claire Sugden Miss Rachel Woods The Deputy Chairperson (Mr Beggs): Welcome to this meeting of the Ad Hoc Committee on the COVID-19 Response. Item 1 on the agenda is the minutes of proceedings of the previous meeting, which was held on 21 May. Members are asked to note those minutes, which have been agreed. The minutes from that meeting have been published in the Official Report and are available on the Committee's web page. Agenda item 2 is a statement from the Minister for the Economy. The Speaker received notification on 9 June that the Minister wished to make a statement to the Ad Hoc Committee at today's meeting. A copy of the statement that the Minister intends to make is in your pack. I welcome the Minister for the Economy to this meeting of the Committee. Before the Minister makes her statement, I remind members that, following it, there will be an opportunity to ask questions, not to 1 make speeches. Members who ask short, sharp, focused questions will be invited to ask a supplementary question if they wish. Members who engage in preambles, however, may find that they do not get to put a question or a supplementary. I ask members for their cooperation, and I will, of course, expect the Minister to also give succinct answers so that everyone will be afforded an opportunity to ask questions. I invite the Minister to make her statement, which should be heard without interruption. Mrs Dodds (The Minister for the Economy): Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker. Thank you for the opportunity, once again, to address the Committee. No one needs to be reminded of the devastation that the COVID-19 pandemic has caused to our economy. Only this morning we have had very regrettable news of 600 redundancies at Bombardier. My thoughts are with the people who are directly affected and their families. As members will appreciate, that was a commercial decision reflecting the global market conditions as a direct result of COVID-19. My Department's careers service is available to support those who are impacted by offering free professional and impartial careers information. That advice and guidance are tailored to individual needs and are designed to help people to explore future training and employment opportunities. I and my officials in the Department and in Invest NI have been in constant contact over the past few months with firms such as Thompson Aero Seating and Bombardier. I have raised my concerns about the impact of COVID-19 on the aerospace sector with Minister Zahawi in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) in London over the past number of weeks, and I expressed the urgent need for a national strategy to support the sector. Locally, I have asked Invest NI to convene a group of parties involved in the wider aerospace sector to consider what additional support they require and what the Governments at national and devolved level can do to help them through this very turbulent period. I fear that this will not be the last day that we have bad news on the economy. Thousands of businesses have temporarily shut their doors, our tourism industry was put into deep freeze and it is estimated that the jobs of over 200,000 people in Northern Ireland have been furloughed as a result of COVID-19. That represents nearly a quarter of workers here having been furloughed and almost three quarters of the self-employed having to avail themselves of the support scheme that is open to them. From these most difficult of circumstances, Northern Ireland has responded and adapted. Essential businesses modified their premises and introduced strict hygiene practices to enable us to continue buying vital items like food and other supplies. Front-line workers played a very important role. We have adopted social-distancing rules and limited our contact with others; college and university students have moved to online learning; and many people have been working from home. Everyone has sacrificed a lot and given a lot of themselves to enable us to live alongside the virus while it is here. I thank everyone for everything that they have done. Government has also stepped up. So far, we have paid out £300 million in support grants to thousands of businesses. Those grants have protected jobs, prevented business closures and provided vital temporary support. A rates holiday was agreed, and extended, to help businesses survive into the future, and the UK Government’s job retention scheme took the unprecedented step of paying 80% of people’s salaries, up to £2,500 a month. All of the hard work of the past few months means that we have reached the point at which we can focus on the recovery phase and rebuilding of the Northern Ireland economy. We need to take action to rebuild a more competitive, inclusive and greener economy. We will have the safety of people at the heart of everything that we do. The hard days are not over, but we are taking steps forward. It is time for the pace to accelerate. At the end of May, I published ‘Charting a Course for the Economy — Our First Steps’ an outline for economic recovery. It is the first in a series of publications by my Department that look at how to move forward from the economic damage caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Other important issues, including childcare, public transport and the management of the footfall on city centre streets, need to be considered alongside our work. 2 We are working to extend confidence in the construction and manufacturing sectors as they continue to move out of lockdown while staying safe and working safely. Many firms have adapted their working practices and protocols, or are preparing to do so, particularly in the wider manufacturing and food production sectors. All employers need to ensure that their workplaces are safe. That may include the increased cleaning of premises, the addition of Perspex walkways, the splitting of work patterns or having appropriate PPE. The engagement forum has published workplace safety guidance for employers, employees and the self-employed. The tourism recovery steering group, which I chair, has been engaging with stakeholders to plan for a new future for tourism here. We received a boost, last week, when it was agreed that hotels, caravan sites, guest houses and B & Bs could reopen on 20 July. That is conditional on the transmission rate remaining low. Tourism will not be the same as before, but I am optimistic about what is to come. I was pleased to be at Debenhams, this week, for the reopening of its store, and I was delighted that I was able to make an internet star of Shirley Roberts, who was caught moonwalking in the background of the interview. From tomorrow, all goods retailers can reopen, as long as they adhere to the necessary safety measures, and provided that there is no increase in the spread of the virus. It is hoped that further announcements can come soon on dates for the reopening of service providers and the hospitality sector. I have written to the Health Minister to ask for a review of the physical-distancing advice to stay two metres from other people. That needs to be debated, and people need to recognise the positive impact that moving to the World Health Organization-recommended one metre would have on various sectors across our economy and education sectors. I stress that people who can work at home should continue to do so. Unfortunately, government grants, homeworking and the reopening of some sectors cannot protect all businesses or all jobs. I have said many times that each month of shutdown has been akin to a large recession. We know that the impact of the virus will be long-lasting in homes across Northern Ireland. That will have a knock-on effect on people's mental health, physical health and family life. The claimant count rose by almost 90% in April, and unemployment increased by over 26,000 to 56,200.Six years of labour market progress was lost in a single month. We need to look out for one another. Going forward, we must protect the vulnerable. Restarting the economy safely, as we are doing, allows people to get back to work. We also need to address the persistently high levels of economic inactivity in Northern Ireland. We want to give those who have lost their job the opportunity to seek new employment elsewhere. Skills has been a priority area for me since I took up office, as I recognise that skills will play a key role in our economic recovery. I have supported thousands of learners across the system, from further education (FE) and higher education (HE) students to apprentices and trainees, as well as a great many others engaged in skills. We have been working through real challenges, from protecting the skills infrastructure so that it will be there to play its place in our recovery to the very practical issues of supporting learners to adjust to a new way of learning.