Enterprise, Trade and Investment Tuesday 24 September 2013

Minister of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, Arlene Foster, answered questions put to her during Question Time in Plenary on Tuesday 24 September 2013.

During the topical questions to the Minister of Enterprise Trade and Investment, Arlene Foster provided an update on the High price of energy, particularly for the large energy users here in Northern Ireland. The Minister stated that the Utility Regulator brought forward a paper earlier this year in which he pointed out the fact that we were one of the highest cost areas for electricity in western Europe and that causes the Minister grave concerns. The Minister is hopeful that a response will be back with her in a timely fashion with actions and costings which is important as there is no point in bringing forward possible actions if there are no costings associated with them.

Commencing the schedule for Oral Questions, the Minister for Enterprise trade and Investment provided the Assembly with figures for the number of jobs that have been promoted and created during this term of the Programme for Government. The Minister went on to provide further details of working with Invest NI to provide us with figures on jobs created, as opposed to jobs promoted and this all depends on the amount of money that it gets in selective financial assistance.

Tourism and Brown Signs, Mr Storey was very persistent in his campaign to have brown signs for the Dark Hedges and the Minister understands that colleagues across the Chamber will want to have brown signs in their constituency pointing out particular points of interest and, indeed, recreational areas. The Minster told the Assembly that the final say in these signs are between the Tourism Board and the Department for Regional Development and at the minute the policy remains with DRD , and an up-to-date policy is yet in place.