Neeson says Stormont Executive is failing construction sector

Alliance Enterprise Spokesperson Seán Neeson MLA has said that the Construction Employer’s Federation projection that 30,000 workers in that sector will be unemployed by the summer shows that the Executive’s strategy to address the downturn is simply not working. Companies are currently shedding 2,000 jobs every month.

Seán Neeson MLA stated: “These unemployment warnings are a depressing indictment of the Stormont Executive’s lack of radical vision in addressing the downturn.

“CEF Director John Armstrong alluded to the need for an Obama style ‘green new deal,’ and I have been saying that we need policy along those lines here for some time now.

“We need to see capital projects being brought forward urgently by the Executive. The Alliance Party sees an environmentally-sound road out of the downturn as being the way forward. We would like to see the Executive move to fund more home insulation projects, to boost the construction sector and help decrease people’s energy bills.”

“I wrote to Social Development Minister Margaret Ritchie on the issue of the Warm Homes scheme last week and I hope for a positive response.”

ENDS