Investment in public sector jobs in Londonderry 'a losing ticket'

Speaking during a debate on the decentralisation of public sector jobs at the Stormont Assembly on Monday Mr Wilson said to move jobs to the west of the province as suggested by the Bain report would fly in the face of prevailing economic pressures.

Mr Wilson made the scathing comments in response to a motion by Londonderry SDLP MLA Pat Ramsey who moved that the assembly note the benefits of decentralisation and that steps be taken to implement Bain's proposals for the re-location of 3000 public sector jobs.

The Minister responded: "It struck me as odd that Members call for more public sector jobs to be relocated to rather than created in their areas.

"I do not know whether they have ever listened to anything that I have said in this House or whether they ever read the newspapers, but the jobs that will be under threat in the forthcoming years are the very ones that they are asking to have re-located to their areas."

Pressures currently manifest by the HM Treasury-imposed Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) are likely to become greater over the next decade was the suggestion.

"For the next 10 years in the United Kingdom, we will face economic pressures that will be directed increasingly towards the public sector as we try to reduce its debt and borrowing.

"If ever there were a loser to be backed, it is investing in public sector jobs in the areas about which Members have spoken," said Mr Wilson.

The man who controls the Executive's purse strings also went on to claims that the west of the province was not hard done by in terms of public service jobs.

"There were allegations that the west of the Province is badly done by, but, if one looks at the distribution of public sector jobs per 100 of the working population, the highest proportion is not in Belfast; it is in Omagh," he said.

"The last time that I looked at a map, Omagh was west of the Bann. Furthermore, Londonderry has the third highest proportion, at 172 per cent, and, as far as I know, Londonderry is located in the west of Northern Ireland. Therefore, of the top three locations, two are located west of the Bann," he added.

Mr Ramsey's motion was defeated by 39 to 32.