Economy

Fuel laundering is so rife in Northern Ireland that three of the big fuel companies have pulled out. That’s the remarkable claim made by Ray Holloway of the Petrol Retailers’ Association. “Government figures in 1998 showed that around 50 per cent of expected fuel tax revenues were missing and it has still not recovered today,” he said. “That is why the fuel companies pulled out. The reason is smuggled and laundered fuel and it is a major problem, with no …

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Not good news for the ferry companies. Ikea the popular Swedish furniture store is set up shop just outside Belfast. Their Glasgow Store is currently the most popular Ikea for Northern Irish homemakers. It has a reputation for keeping the customer happy, though it’s so popular, and they keep so few stores, that the experience is too much like getting caught in amongst a herd of elephants for me. It should provide a private sector boost to jobs. Mick FealtyMick …

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Uncommon praise for politicians from a reader of the Newsletter, or indeed any of Northern Ireland’s newspaper. Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

Some people still don’t get the opportunities provided by the net. One family business in Irvinestown has grown its internet business and its turnover from £60,000 to £1.5 million. Check out the site! Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty

It seems that BT pulled off the contract in time, and the government now classifies Northern Ireland as 100% broadband, which keeps it well ahead of the Republic and indeed most of the EU in terms of broadband access. Certainly it is good news for the economic infrastructure, but it’s the other softer political factors that are missing. Not least the ongoing democratic deficit. No sign either of the latest government economic plan, three months after it was promised. Adds: …

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Like the Not Indifferent Not Sceptical Ciarán, I’m not an expert in this particular area, but he knows someone who is.. and highlights this important story – The criticism of the regulation, or lack of it, of Ireland’s financial services market that has emerged as “A leading figure from Dublin’s financial services centre faces a jail sentence in the US for masterminding a global securities fraud network from Sydney to New York”. The Irish Times carried the same article on …

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Northern Irish property prices are growing at four times the rate of the UK average rise.Fionnuala Earley, Nationwide’s group economist: “Prices increased by 4.8 per cent in the final quarter of the year – more than three times the quarterly growth rate for the UK. Affordability in Northern Ireland deteriorated more than anywhere else in the UK in 2005. Yet it still remains one of the more affordable areas for first time buyers,” Mick FealtyMick is founding editor of Slugger. …

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Unlike the more speculative recent articles on the economy north and south, Alan Ruddock, in the Sunday Times, assesses the prospects in a more grounded political reality. It’s still not a pretty picture and, as he says, not only is there little prospect of the all-island economy Peter Hain disingenuously prescribed, but the opportunity may have been missed to capitalise on the majority of the inward investment available over the past 10 years or so, leaving the only hope, and …

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David McWilliams reckons there’s a decent quid pro quo in economic unification of the northern and southern polities, and that the Republic should begin including Northern Ireland’s overall higher quality of infrastructure and consequent general living standards in its pitch, and petition for Westminster to allow Northern Ireland to have it’s own Corporation Tax concessions to encourage inward investment. Northern Ireland for its part would have to face a stringent sliming regime for it’s over nourished and largely inward looking …

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According to the provisional statistics on the NI economy in 2004, contained in this Northern Ireland Annual Business Inquiry report[pdf file] – “In 2004 the total value of sales and work completed (Turnover) by Northern Ireland based companies and organisations was £45,228 million, an increase of 5.9% on the figure for 2003 at basic prices (i.e. without adjustment for factors such as inflation).” The report excludes the central government public sector. The Press Association got some quotes from NIO Minister …

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From Prof Reynolds blog comes this link to an article by three members of a Flemish think-tank, Work for All, taking issue with a recent call in Le Monde, echoing a report by a Brussels think-tank Bruegel, for EU states to adopt the Scandinavian socio-economic model. The article points instead to Ireland and argues that the combination of “the so-called “active welfare state” of continental Europe with the Anglo-Saxon liberal economy in a balanced fashion” cannot be ignored. The Irish …

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John O’Farrell has the cover story in the New Statesman this week. In he describes the hard wired sectarianism in Northern Ireland behind graffiti like KAT (Kill All Taigs) and KAH (Kill All Huns) that still can be found on the streets in Belfast eleven years after the ceasefire. But he argues, whilst the British government has been carefully looking after the sectional interests of Unionism (DUP) and Nationalism (SF), no one has been watching the economic bottom line. Sectarianism, …

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Peter Hain talks to Nialll Stanage about the desireability of an all island economy. Scoop of the month, I’d say! In future decades, it is going to be increasingly difficult to look at the economy of north and south except as a sort of island of Ireland economy. We are deepening north-south cooperation in a number of areas. The Northern Ireland economy, though it is doing better than ever in its history, is not sustainable in the long-term. I don’t …

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The BBC report on the November 2005 issue of PriceWaterhouseCoopers UK Economic Outlook, which has just been published.. a summary of the report is on the PWC website, and the full report is here [PDF file]. The BBC headline seems a bit obvious though, a sharp slowdown in UK economic activity would put a chill on all regions, surely. The report actually states that some deceleration is expected in economic growth in NI over the next 12 months, and it …

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I’VE reached the age where every time I phone home, my mother wants to know if I’ve bought a house yet – but where I want to be and what I can afford are two different things. In Belfast and elsewhere in NI, first-time buyers are being squeezed by the stratospheric rise in house prices. The Government’s move to raise the stamp duty threshold was, let’s face it, no more than tokenistic. Here’s how Kevin McCauley of the BBC coped. …

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AFTER Ian Paisley’s belated-but-welcome stand against the loyalist sectarian campaign of violence against Catholics in his constituency, it should be noted that there have been quite a number of attacks on Orange halls recently too. However, this attack seemed particularly cowardly, and while I know most republicans who detest the Order will nonetheless condemn these attacks, perhaps it goes some way to explaining why the DUP gained the political concession of de-rating for Orange halls, as the insurance is often …

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