Benefit Tribunals

Part of Northern Ireland Assembly – in the Northern Ireland Assembly at 6:15 pm on 14 February 2012.

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Photo of Jim Allister Jim Allister Traditional Unionist Voice 6:15, 14 February 2012

I will seek to take your guidance, Mr Speaker. Others have exalted the A5 project. I am simply seeking to raise what I think are legitimate issues with the budgetary context. If it is to be built, it is coming out of money that will be in Budget x. Therefore, we need to address it.

I looked to see how DETI is fairing in the Budget, and I discovered that Invest NI has, perhaps for many years, had something of a misfocus with regard to its preoccupation with the glamour of foreign direct investment and ignored too much the reality that so many of our people depend on jobs provided by local entrepreneurs — small businesses that might grow into medium-sized businesses.