Judith Cochrane MLA said: “I had hoped that this matter would have been progressed before the summer but failure to find common ground around the associated costs means that there is little prospect of devolution anytime soon.”
“The Northern Ireland economy has become stagnant with our reliance on our public sector, and whilst everyone accepts that this is not a silver bullet to resolve all of the challenges facing the Northern Ireland economy, it is clear that it represents the kind of significant change which could transform our economic competitiveness. Northern Ireland is the only part of the UK with a land border with another country that has a very low corporation tax rate and there is evidence from an Oxford Economics report that around 57,000 jobs could be created in Northern Ireland if we were to lower our corporation tax rate.
“Business leaders have been calling for the powers to be devolved to Northern Ireland as they can clearly see the advantage that a lower rate would provide. We owe it to our private sector to support them by progressing this issue.”
ENDS