Nortel taskforce proposed to counteract jobs losses

A new move aimed at building success out of the predicted loss of more than 100 jobs in Nortel’s Northern Ireland operations has been put forward by an East Antrim Assembly member.

UUP MLA Ken Robinson has proposed that a special taskforce should be established to grow new companies based on the scientific, research and development skills possessed by the highly qualified and talented workforce.

Mr. Robinson said: “We need to have people like those involved in QUBIS at Queen’s University which grew successful commercial business out of scientific know-how at the University. Such a taskforce could create economic opportunity from this bad news.

“The loss of over 100 highly skilled jobs reinforces what I have been highlighting for some time now - that east Antrim is remarkable in that it has this extremely high number of highly qualified research and development staff who are suffering because of the downsizing of the global economy.

“I believe this situation would have been far worse if it had not been for the efforts of the Enterprise Minister Sir Reg Empey, who I know has been in negotiation with the company which has made no secret of its intention of selling and re-sizing some of its businesses.”

Mr. Robinson added: “I took note of the fact that Nortel admitted its Monkstown plant was working on developing new products and this has probably been a limiting factor in the job losses but it does bare out the economic potential for Northern Ireland which lies in the skills and expertise of this workforce.

“At the end of the day this is a nettle we have to grasp. It is better for us to build locally resourced, locally based businesses which operate on a world stage and to world class than it is to rely on outside multi nationals.

“These multi nationals are governed by imperatives that often have little or nothing to do with Northern Ireland but have more to do with the shape of their business.

“I have no doubt that an economic taskforce pooling the cream of research and development talent and focusing it into business channels is the best way forward.”

(GB)