Duke of York visits NI businesses

The Duke of York has arrived in Northern Ireland to embark on some official engagements.

Prince Andrew's first stop was at the Liberty Information Technology (Liberty IT) in Adelaide Street in Belfast, where he listened to a brief presentation on the company’s development in the province since it was established in 1997, before being given a guided tour of the building and meeting with the 190 employees.

During the visit, the Duke of York talked with staff involved in many of the core business products of the Company, including the International Underwriters Team involved in developing software solutions for assessing risks of insuring oil rigs and other teams who are involved in developing computer programmes for processing vehicle insurance claims. Before leaving, the Prince listened to a few words of thanks from the Managing Director, Mr William Hamilton, before signing the visitor's book.

His second engagement of the day was to Thales Air Defence in east Belfast, which is part of an International Defence, Aerospace and Security Company with over 60,000 employees worldwide.

The visit coincided with an announcement by the company of an export contract worth £10 million, which will help secure the jobs of the 550 strong workforce.

During the visit, Prince Andrew was given details of the company’s contract with Saab Bofors Dynamics for NLAW missile assembly, by Thales senior management.

Thales Vice President Mr David Beatty and Director of Operations, Mr Roy Woods invited HRH on a tour of the facilities where he met with some of the employees who help the company achieve an annual turnover of around £80 million.

The Prince was then viewed the company’s Vehicle Systems Integration and Test Facility and a new multi-role Vehicle Mounted Launcher which was released on the export market in September last year.

At the end of the visit, HRH was presented with a gift of a model Starstreak Missile, before leaving for his next engagement.

(EF/SP)