Beggs Speaks out on East Antrim Public Sector Jobs

Speaking during a debate on public sector job location in the Northern Ireland Assembly, Ulster Unionist MLA Roy Beggs Jnr , has pointed out that the perennial complaint from the west of the Bann about unfair distribution of public sector jobs was a myth. Using official statistics, Mr Beggs claimed that East Antrim has a valid claim for a fairer deal in regards to civil service jobs.

Speaking on the floor of the Assembly, Mr Beggs said:

"My constituency of East Antrim is ranked as one of the lowest of the 18 parliamentary constituencies when it comes to public sector jobs, having only 2·4%, or 5,171, of the 219,000 jobs listed. That already low figure is set to decrease still further, with the Department for Agriculture and Rural Development (DARD) office in Larne being earmarked for closure and relocation, changes happening in the Department for Social Development (DSD), centralisation in north Belfast , and a new processing office opening in Ballymena."

Mr Beggs argued that the Bain Report on public sector decentralization had partially obscured the reality of the low level of public sector jobs in East Antrim by burying it in the Belfast travel-to-work area.

"Page 58 of the Bain report states that councils in East Antrim have among the lowest number of public sector jobs per 100 of the working age population. Larne has only 8 public sector jobs for every 100 of the working age population, Carrickfergus has 8·2, and Newtownabbey has 10·3. Those figures compare with 35·6 public sector jobs in Belfast for every 100 of the working age population, 21·8 in Omagh and 19·2 in Londonderry .

Other areas are similarly affected. For example, the Ards council area has 8·5 public sector jobs for every 100 people. Again, the issue of huge variations within each travel-to-work area was not addressed by the review. It is not only an issue for areas west of the Bann, as some of the issues also affect areas in the east of the Province."