The Scale of the recession and the impact it has had on public spending means that we need to re-examine our programmes and targets. This is a view shared by others, in Yesterday’s Belfast Telegraph the economist Nigel Simpson stated "The purported budget for 2009-2011 is based on assumptions that have been invalidated." John Armstrong of the Construction Employers Federation also stated "Northern Ireland’s economic position has changed dramatically over the last number of months. We believe the Executive needs to adjust its priorities to take this into account". However, all we are hearing from the Minister is that everything is fine and we should proceed full steam ahead.

However, the targets to create a minimum of 6,500 jobs, 85% of which will be above the NI private sector median wage seems bizarre knowing what we now know about the financial services sector. When Invest NI states that Foreign Direct Investment leads are being particularly hard hit, sales from its land bank, which funds growth especially to locally-owned businesses are down and Sales in 2008/09 are estimated to be at least 80 percent down on last year, we should be reprioritising existing resources to get the best return for existing Northern Ireland businesses. However, the DETI Minister has instead announced an independent review of her Department with a debilitating remit that it will only report back in the summer.

The Finance Minister has made many announcements in the past few weeks outlining the steps that his Department and the Executive have taken to boost the economy and local businesses. Some of these announcements have been welcomed and will be beneficial, others are old news recycled. One of the key points that I would like to make today is that announcements are the easy bit delivering on those announcements is what this Executive and the Finance Minister will be judged on.

Announcing £1.4billion investment in our infrastructure for this year is easy delivering £1.4billion is another story. There is a severe lack of monitoring and evaluation when it comes to delivering on Programme for Government Targets, this is similarly true when it comes to infrastructure investments and investments in the economy. This morning Nigel Smyth of CBI writing in the Belfast Telegraph stated: "confidence will only be built if effective delivery takes place regular monitoring and reporting is necessary to ensure results are being achieved, and to date this visibility has been lacking".

I would like an assurance from the Minister for Finance today that he will ensure that adequate reporting and evaluation will be put in place to make certain that this Executive is delivering. This should not take the form of facile statements made by the Minister but detailed reporting on investments made and projects started.

How easy it is to make announcements was highlighted again today when Planning Service stated that there was no longer a backlog in planning applications yet it takes much longer to get anything approved here compared to the rest of the UK. We also know that 22 projects have been put on hold which is unfortunate at this time when we need as much work in progress as is possible.
The Minister must also look again at rate relief for small businesses. Indigenous small companies make up 98% of NI business and at this difficult time it is right that the Finance Minister should be closely examining rate relief proposals as the cost of doing business in Northern Ireland has increased considerably in recent years; a factor which is rendering small companies vulnerable in these extremely difficult times.

Additionally more strategic emphasis needs to be placed on attracting tourists to Northern Ireland. The strong Euro is giving a short-term advantage to Northern Ireland but I believe that we are not making enough of this by having a joined up approach and package in order to attract new tourists from the Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland and mainland Europe.