Robin Swann, the Ulster Unionist MLA and Chair of Stormont’s Employment and Learning committee has highlighted the fact that the Department his committee shadows (DEL)  is facing a budget cut, despite having co-sponsored recent big job announcements made by Invest NI- which is an agency of the Department for Enterprise, Trade and Investment.

 Robin Swann MLA said;

“There is a fundamental contradiction at the heart of the draft budget for 2015/16 agreed by Sinn Fein and the DUP.  There are two Stormont Departments whose key roles are in economic development.  We have the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETI), under a DUP Minister, receiving an extra £30M to fund job creation projects and receiving a 5.3% uplift in its budget for next year.  At the same time the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL) is being cut to the tune of almost 11% of its annual budget.  This will really squeeze the further and higher education sectors, and have an adverse effect on skills and training.

 “In terms of job creation, Invest NI- an agency of DETI- has earned tremendous plaudits over the last few years for announcing large scale investment projects.  However invariably it is the Department for Employment and Learning which has backed these announcements up with very substantial grants for research and development. 

“I have discovered that DEL has provided financial support totalling £5,704,519 to 14 projects in respect of 3,690 new jobs introduced and promoted by Invest Northern Ireland since the start of the 2011/2012.

 A cynic might suggest that DETI with its DUP Minister tends to get all the credit for Invest NI job announcements, whilst DEL provides the grants and then gets its budget squeezed.  What is not open to speculation, however, is the fact that if the draft budget is not radically changed, the Department for Employment and Learning will not have the finance to support job creation projects to the same extent in the years to come.”