Northern Ireland Affairs Committee
29 June 2026
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Northern Ireland Affairs Committee Actual start House of Commons
17:11 - 18:28
Speaker 1
Welcome to the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee inquiry on economic growth. This is our ministerial session today, so thank you very much to Blair McDougall, the MP, Minister for Small Business and Economic Transformation from the Department for Business and Trade. Also to Minister Matthew Patrick from the Northern Ireland Office.
So thank you very much. And we're also joined by Sally Jones, Deputy Director of the Industrial Strategies Implementation, Partnerships and Place from DBT, and Paul Flynn, Deputy Director of the Taskforce of the Windsor Framework Taskforce in the Northern Ireland Office. So welcome everybody. I'll kick off then. Minister Patrick, your government's response to our report on economic growth in Northern Ireland noted that the NIO's economic vision seeks to address structural weaknesses in the economy.
However, it also did acknowledge that responsibility for skills, energy, planning and infrastructure are devolved. So how how are you going to tackle Northern Ireland's barriers to growth?
18:28 - 19:12
Speaker 2
Thank you, Chair. There's, you mentioned a couple of issues there, and you're right that there are devolved matters, but it's really clear, whether it's myself or the Secretary of State or Baroness Anderson, we're not here to sort of pass the buck when it comes to these things. Where we can work with the Executive on helping drive the breadth of skills, because I think, I mean, I know you and your committee have been right across Northern Ireland and you'll see it for yourself, the depth of skills is evident, but there's not always the breadth that businesses can take advantage of. So our role is not to sit by and say, yes, we've cut a check for a record settlement, more than ever before in the history of devolution, and we'll just watch what you do with it. Our job is to kind of actively engage with that.
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