Write a commentNewry Chamber of Commerce hosted a Business Lunch in the Canal Court Hotel today with deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness MLA the keynote guest speaker.
President Michael McKeown, said, ‘Newry Chamber of Commerce was delighted to host this important Business Lunch with the deputy First Minister at a hugely important time in the history of this cross border community and indeed the island of Ireland. The outcome of the UK’s Referendum on EU membership and imminent Government elections on both sides of the border may impact our everyday lives and shape the way we do business in the future. It was important to hear from the deputy First Minister his comments on the matter and for him to hear the views from the Newry Business Community’.
At the event the deputy First Minister talked about the global economy, the priority the Executive places on growing the economy and the valuable contribution of local businesses.
The deputy First Minister said: “Events like this hosted by the Newry Chamber of Commerce and Trade are important as they provide a forum for an exchange of views on how we can collectively grow our economy. Newry has a vibrant business community with an abundance of entrepreneurial spirit and a thirst for success. This energy and enthusiasm has kept the wheels of the economy turning during what has been very challenging economic period
“At a time of elections, north and south and a referendum on Europe it’s vitally important the Executive, Invest NI, Councils and local stakeholders continue to work together to rebuild and rebalance our economy. We must support businesses and we have done that during this Programme for Government by almost £30million of support offered by Invest NI to locally-owned businesses in the Newry, Mourne and Down Council area.”
Speaking about the performance of the Executive, Martin McGuinness said: “Decisions taken by the Executive by locally elected and accountable politicians continue to make a real and positive difference to people’s lives. This Executive has created more than 40,000 jobs, spent over £90million a week delivering the range of health and social care services across the north, stopped the introduction of water charges, kept our rates bill lower than the rest of the UK, kept prescriptions free for everyone and protected free domiciliary care.
“In addition, we have supported our students with tuition fees for local students at Queen’s and Ulster University which are a third lower than those studying in England. We have stopped the introduction of the bedroom tax, unlike the rest of the UK, prevented unmitigated welfare cuts through agreeing a range of welfare changes to continue to support the most vulnerable across society, and provided free travel for pensioners.”
Event sponsor, Steven McDonnell, Recruitment Manager at Servisource, stated, ‘We were delighted to support Newry Chamber in hosting this business lunch event. As an organisation operating in this cross border region we recognise the importance of events like this in promoting this region as a key place to work and do business’.
