Loyalist Communities Council chairman David Campbell has dipped into the Big Book of Political Cliches, claiming young people in loyalist areas become involved with paramilitarism because they can no longer “turn to large employers like the shipyard, Mackies, Shorts etc, or the army, and obtain apprenticeships and jobs for life”.
The late David Ervine got away with talking like this but that was two decades ago. Even then he noted that any expectation of an industrial job for life was three generations out of date.
Apart from that, there have never been more opportunities for work or training (and the army is always recruiting, no qualifications required).
Northern Ireland has had full employment for 20 years, except for a few years after the 2008 crash. Its 2 per cent unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world and its 3 per cent youth unemployment rate is even more extraordinary by international standards – the EU rate is 14 per cent.
The main reason loyalism continues to recruit has repeatedly been explained by the PSNI and the intelligence services, in both public statements and leaked confidential reports.
Young people are lured into drug dealing, or coerced over drug debts, or are attracted to a gang culture propped up by drug money.
A changing economy may be a factor in this but no job market can be expected to put organised crime out of business.
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A slimmed-down Casement Park will cost £270 million, the BBC has reported.
GAA president Jarlath Burns recently praised DUP communities minister Gordon Lyons for his commitment to the project but the BBC is now alleging a “tetchy” meeting where Burns accused Lyons of “dragging his feet” on finding extra money.
Lyons says he is committed to the £62.5m Stormont promised in 2011, although that is the least he can do. Allowing for inflation would take that figure to £90m.
It is rather convenient to put all the blame on the DUP. Casement is an executive flagship project and was addressed in this year’s draft budget by Sinn Féin finance minister Caoimhe Archibald, who allocated an extra £15m to be shared between it and the “sub-regional stadia programme”, the quid pro quo for Irish league grounds.
That is what Lyons has so far been given to play with. If he gave it all to Casement it would still only cover a tenth of the funding shortfall.
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The Education Authority (EA) has cancelled a £485 million contract with Fujitsu less than a year into its 10-year term.
Fujitsu, the firm behind the Post Office’s notorious Horizon system, was to provide a new computer system for all of Northern Ireland’s schools, replacing a service supplied by Capita since 2012.
The sudden cancellation of such a huge deal should cause alarm, especially as an alternative supplier will be hard to find. Fujitsu was the only final bidder and Capita had its contract extended multiple times to keep the old system going.
The EA and Fujitsu will only say cancellation was “mutually agreed on a no-fault basis”.
Considering the haplessness of both organisations, it is a toss-up which one gave up on the other first.
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Computer costs are the problem with Stormont’s one-off top-up to the winter fuel payment.
Giving £100 to everyone who lost the payment is a daft distribution of the £17 million the executive has set aside. Most recipients will not need it, while it will not be enough for many who do.
In theory, benefits are fully devolved and Stormont could devise a better arrangement. But diverging from the UK benefits system means diverging from its computer system, with large up-front and on-going costs.
The Universal Credit mitigations under the 2015 Fresh Start agreement still cost £5 million a year to run, just to hand out £40 million.
Who is eligible for the new £100 winter fuel payment and how to apply
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Monthly ‘opposition day’ debates were introduced to the assembly this year and the SDLP, as official opposition, vowed to make good use of them.
It got off to a rocky start with Westminster-style grandstanding and finger-pointing, giving Sinn Féin and the DUP an excuse to stay away – a calculated display of contempt.
But opposition day finally seemed to get into its stride this week, with an SDLP motion on tackling dereliction in central Belfast, in particular the stalled Tribeca development.
Although there was still some finger-pointing between the SDLP, DUP and Sinn Féin, there was good attendance for a constructive debate on issues such as property taxes.
One point missed is that Tribeca needs most of its five-year planning approvals renewed this year. Belfast City Council has the option to decline renewal due to failure to progress the scheme.
That would almost certainly put the whole 12-acre site back on the market, solving the problem at no cost to the taxpayer.
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Objections have been raised to a planned tourist campsite and caravan park on Belfast’s Cavehill.
Media reports note the applicant – the director of a skip hire firm – has a conviction for dumping thousands of tonnes of illegal waste on the Cavehill.
The case also raises a general concern about the planning system. The application includes a “visitor’s centre” with “a large room displaying information on the attractions of Cavehill Country Park”. This seems to be its key selling point to planners and councillors.
But not everything approved has to be built. In one memorable example, the developers of Belfast’s Victoria Square shopping centre promised a public library, then ditched the promise once permission was granted. Councillors and officials were powerless to do anything about it, yet they keep buying the same bag of magic beans over and over again.
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The merger of Northern Ireland’s 26 councils into 11 super-councils in 2015 was meant to save money.
Stormont’s former Department of the Environment, which oversaw the merger, commissioned a report from consultants PwC in 2009 that projected total savings of £438 million over 25 years.
By 2015, the department was claiming councils could deliver savings of £20 million a year for 25 years, or £500m in total.
In 2020, the successor Department for Communities admitted council running costs had risen by £50m a year.
A new report from the department this month, with figures up to 2022, shows spending has risen by 7.8 per cent per year on average since the super-councils were created.
The department has declined to comment further but a note on its website adds: “It is too early in the process to conclude if local government reform has been cost-effective.”
If you cannot tell whether a 25-year project is working after nine years, it is not working.
