Stormont’s Programme For Government has been delayed so many times that another day or two isn’t really going to make any difference.
But that’s not really the point about this week’s latest piece of unscripted improvisation comedy up on the hill.
Yesterday was supposed to have been the day. The fanfares were all lined up, the scones were ordered, and the media en masse would have descended upon Stormont to question the First and Deputy First Minister about the PoG.
But it didn’t happen. Something to do with Agriculture Minister Andrew Muir getting a bit shirty about not being provided with sufficient time to review the final proposals ahead of an Executive meeting to sign it off.
It raises all sorts of questions, all of them quite boring. Was poor old Andy the only Minister not given enough time to do his homework? Did the rest of them, his party leader Naomi Long included, gang up on him and snigger behind his back?
Whatever happened, it was a technicality. And not a very big one at that. But it meant that Wednesday’s presser was scrapped and we move on to this morning (Thursday) when everyone is going to have to get up really early for an Executive meeting at 8.00 am.
So, by the time you’re reading this, there might well have been a press conference to reveal the contents of the Programme for Government. Meanwhile, we’ll be on a flight to Lanzarote, so we can pick up on it at our leisure.
And that’s the thing. Business organisations and others have been moaning about the lack of a Programme for Government for a while. Since well over a year ago, in fact, when Sir Jeffrey Donaldson sent his warriors back into the Stormont battle.
Will it make any difference? On the evidence so far, probably not. But there are optimists out there who reckon that a detailed plan is what is needed to get Stormont rocking and rolling.
Let’s hope they’re right.
It’s His Party & I’ll Cry If I Want To
For those with a deep and abiding interest in the everlasting crisis in the Middle East, Michelle O’Neill’s decision to boycott this year’s St. Patrick’s Day events in Washington might make some sense.
Principled it might be to some, righteous it might seem to others. But we think it’s just wrong. The civilian deaths in Gaza are appalling and wrong on every level, as was (before anyone protests) the brutal killing and kidnapping of Israelis back in October of 2023. There are the disclaimers.
But it has nothing to do with Northern Ireland and it has nothing to do with Northern Ireland’s economy. No one expected our First Minister (there to serve all of us, as she’s said herself) to jet off to Washington because she’s a huge fan of Donald Trump and JD Vance.
What a lot of us did expect her to do was to hold her nose, get on the plane, sip a few free drinks, try to enjoy the odd meal and get across the fact that Northern Ireland, with all of its unique advantages, is open for business.
Would that have been so difficult? The people of Gaza are unlikely to have been offended.
As things stand, we’ll be represented by Emma Little Pengelly and by some unionists who like the cut of Donald Trump’s jib. Fortunately for us all, there will also be a number of our leading business organisations over in the US capital. They’ll have to try to fly the flag. But our First Minister would have been much more high profile.
The Irish Government aren’t exactly pro-Israeli, as they’ve shown, but they’ll be in Washington.
So, while Trump and Vance swan around the Paddy’s Day shenanigans wondering which bleeding heart liberals have snubbed them, Michelle can sit at home clutching her pearls and worrying about Palestinians.
What would happen, say, if a Chinese delegation arrived here to talk about setting up an electric car component plant in West Befast (unlikely, we know)? Would our First Minister boycott that too on the back of alleged Chinese human rights breaches?
And what about the next time a bunch of Americans jets over to announce the opening of a new software firm’s European office. Will she stay away from that too because of their President’s views and opinions?
There’s a school of thought that says that the Washington boycott might be part of a wider strategy so that O’Neill can take a tilt at the Irish Presidency. Does that make it any more palatable? Hardly. Doesn’t make much sense either.
Her wee protest, never mind anything else, won’t make a button of difference to President Trump’s stance on the Middle East, and it won’t help the Palestinians on the ground in any shape or form.
It’s nothing more than a pointless little stance over an issue that has nothing to do with Northern Ireland or its economy.
Red Tape & Ambitions
We’ll cheerfully admit that we’ve spent a lot of time and print talking up the advantages of dual market access and rather less talking about the issues faced by some businesses as a sea of bureaucracy washes over them.
They have a point, and the Federation of Small Businesses summed it up rather well in a submission to the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee at Westminster. Not much point in telling out lot, after all, they’d only turn it into a political argument and then do diddly squat.
FSB NI says that a “mind-numbing array of scheme has been set up to lubricate the grinding wheels of a massive new bureaucracy”. Almost poetic that, couldn’t have put it better had we tried.
They also pointed to the have and have nots scenario. Post-Brexit arrangement are working well for some businesses, but others reckon they’re an “unmitigated disaster” based on the costs, complexities and delays.
The bodies set up to manage the Windsor Framework scheme have come, say the FSB, “at great cost, but with no commensurate benefit”.
Next problem due over the horizon are new rules on business to business parcels, due to start taking effect at the end of March. There are increasing fears, add the business body, that GB suppliers will simply opt out of the NI market rather than try to navigate the red tape and added costs.
The FSB submission called on the UK Government to show a bit more ambition and help to make Northern Ireland the “Hong Kong or Singapore of the Western Hemisphere”.
Nice thought, lads, and who doesn’t like a bit of ambition?
Well Done, Rachel
Meanwhile, it’s not long now until Rachel Reeves’ move on Employers National Insurance Contributions comes into effect. And the dire warning are coming in thick and fast.
There’s little doubt that the hospitality sector, once again, will be hard hit. Wage and tax bills will rise….and they’ll rise sharply. And this is an industry already operating on some of the tightest of tight margins.
Little wonder then that Hospitality Ulster warns that 65% of the businesses they represent will reduce employment, 55% will cancel planned investment, 26% will look at trading hours and 22% are thinking of site closures
It’s not a pretty picture. But, before anyone accuses the trade body of scaremongering, it’s likely to be a very accurate one. Things are not looking good.
“The results of this survey confirm what we have been telling politicians for years now: that the conditions in which hospitality businesses are being forced to operate will result in closures and the loss of employment. This should be the final warning for elected representatives in both Stormont and Westminster that the upcoming changes in April will be a body blow for many hospitality businesses,” says Hospitality Ulster’s Colin Neill.
“This will be especially felt in Northern Ireland, where the hospitality sector is the fourth largest employer in the private sector and the backbone of our tourism industry. While we continue to take the fight to Westminster over VAT reductions and the reversal of these disastrous cost increases, we are calling on Stormont to deliver an interim support package to safeguard against the worst of these cost increases and accelerate the process of business rates reform.”
But, sure, how else is ther Labour Government supposed to fund increased defence spending and pay rises for train drivers?
Golf….But Not As We Know It
It’s a big year for golf in this part of the world with The Open Championship making its return to balmy Royal Portrush in July.
Already, the stories about how much players, officials, sponsors and the media are paying for hotel rooms and rented houses are legion. One hotelier we spoke to had sold out his entire hotel (a good distance south of Portrush) to one of the sponsors….and had to revamp his menu and, even more importantly, his wine list, to fit the bill.
After a hard day schmoozing in the corporate hospitality suites, after all, the poor souls can’t be expected to come back and wash their dinner down with one of those £24 Australian reds.
And there’s been the usual pre-tournament talk of properties in the area being rented out for £20,000 a week. It might seem like a lot for you and I for a wee week up on the North Coast, but it’s not a lot for a professional golfer, TV company or any other members of golf’s huge entourage. Small change, in fact.
The newest addition to our hotel portfolio, the Dunluce Lodge right on the edge of the course itself, is due to open its highly-specified doors next month, well in time to shake out any teething problems before the big hitters arrive in July. A room on a Monday night in May will set you back almost £500, so God only knows how much those who are staying for the Open will be shelling out.
But, all power to General Manager Stephen Meldrum (formerly of the Culloden and the Grand Central), his team and the American owners. We need top-end hotels up near what’s a top end golf course in anyone’s book.
Mind you, you can’t help but wonder how many enthusiastic Calfornians and Texans they’re going to get coming over to play Portrush in the middle of January?
Talking A Good Game
The new Business Eye Live Podcast in association with BDO Northern Ireland has been a success for us since we started down the podcast route later last year. We’re now on Episode 4 and listenership and downloads continue on an upward trajectory.
In the latest podcast, we chat with BDO’s Brian Murphy about what lies ahead in 2025 – from Trump to taxes and beyond – and we catch up with one of the more fascinating people we’ve interviewed in the past year or two.
Professor Stephen Peake is Professor of Climate Change & Energy at The Open University and he’s a man with some challenging views on how Northern Ireland can make the best of the fact that it has all the elements needed to be a green energy powerhouse.
Meanwhile, Roseann Kelly talks about the remarkable growth of Women In Business in Northern Ireland. From a standing start, the organisation has upwards of 10,000 members here.