‘Young people in North excluded from Loan Fund’ – Murphy | Latest Newry News, Newry Sport and Newry Business for Newry City

‘Young people in North excluded from Loan Fund’ – Murphy

Sinn Féin Economy Spokesperson Conor Murphy has said that the British Government’s exclusion of people in the North from their entrepreneur loan scheme demonstrates why fiscal powers must be devolved to the Assembly.

Speaking to Newry Times, Murphy said,

“Across western Europe, levels of youth unemployment continue to soar and are way beyond acceptable levels. Whilst the British government has launched an £82 million loan fund for entrepreneurs between 18 and 24 who wish to start a business, young people in the North have been excluded.”

“This is in stark contrast to the continuing austerity policies of the British government. It seems we only ‘benefit’ from the cutbacks and increases in regressive taxation measures such as VAT and fuel duty, but solid examples of any actual benefit from our link with Britain are thin on the ground.”

Murphy continued, “This latest policy launched by the British government only serves to reinforce Sinn Féin’s assessment that their economic policy is solely aimed at growing the economy of the island of Britain, while those living in Ireland are simply an afterthought. The only way is to address this is for all fiscal powers to be transferred from the British government to the Executive so that we can be in control of our own economic destiny.”

“That is the next step on our journey to economic recovery. My own constituency of Newry Armagh has always had an extremely high number of business start ups – a fact which is reflective both of the entrepreneurial spirit of people living along the border and the traditional lack of state investment in business in this area.”

He added, “I am sure that very many of my constituents would have liked to have had the opportunity to avail of this funding. Once more we are provided with evidence that the people of the North are poor relations in terms of British financial policy.”

Short URL: https://newrytimes.com/?p=15886

Posted by on May 29 2012. Filed under News, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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