Civil Service incompetence no excuse for withdrawing business development funding- Neeson

11.59.00pm GMT Tue 8th Nov 2005

Alliance Enterprise Spokesperson Séan Neeson met Northern Ireland Office Minister Angela Smith today to say that the shambles of the Government's Jobskills programme must not be used as an excuse for the Government to withdraw funding from perfectly good programmes.

The East Antrim MLA stated: "I am meeting the Minister specifically to ensure funding is retained for programmes like the 'Start a Business' programme, which has been very successful in encouraging entrepreneurship.

"The Jobskills programme was obviously disastrous and raises serious questions about how civil servants' work is monitored. But we should learn from programmes where civil servants have worked together with training organisations successfully too.

"What kind of message would withdrawing funding from business start-up promotion programmes send to the public, when the Government has spent so long trying to encourage people to take the risk and engage in entrepreneurship? It would go entirely against much of the good work that has gone on in this area"

ENDS