January 24 1975
STRONG pressure is being put on the British Government by Northern Ireland political, industrial and trade union leaders to take urgent measure to arrest the deteriorating economic situation here.
Demands have been made for the setting up of conferences involving both sides of industry and public representatives to examine the problem and to suggest plans to stop the rot.
Calls for action are being intensified with the announcement yesterday that unemployment has jumped by 2,237 since last month.
The Assembly party of the WPNI [Workers’ Party Northern Ireland] yesterday expressed grave concern at the worsening situation and said that the economic fabric of the North was in very real danger.
A party statement last night said they believed it was damaging to their ability to deal with this situation that there was no regional administration. There was no possibility of a government being established for at least another 18 months.
“Economic problems cannot wait for 18 months”, the statement added.
“In these circumstances it is the duty of elected representatives to get together irrespective of political outlooks to focus their attention and use the abilities at once in dealing with employment prospects in agriculture and in industry”.
The Party called on the Secretary of State to convene a conference of elected Assembly members forthwith.
The Deputy Leader of the Alliance Party, Mr Bob Cooper, said it was vital that the people of Northern Ireland, through their elected representatives, should have some say in how the crisis was to be faced.
He said there were many decisions the Government would have to make about actions which it could take to mitigate the effects of the situation.
“Consideration will have to be given to such things as the possibility of increasing assistance to small firms, the question of maintaining and improving the very fine training facilities which we already have, the possibility of helping larger firms with a liquidity problem and many other issues”.
Mr Cooper appealed to all political parties to support Mr Billy Blease [trade unionist] and demand that the Secretary of State should call a joint conference of Assembly members, MP’s and both sides of industry.
The dire economic position the North faced in the mid-1970s was partly blamed by the absence of a regional government with all decisions affecting Northern Ireland made in Westminster.
