Minutes of the meeting held on Thursday, 27 July 2006 in Room 135, Parliament Buildings.

In the Chair: Jim Wells

Present: Roy Beggs Jnr
Michelle Gildernew MP
Dr Alasdair McDonnell MP
Mitchel McLaughlin
David McNarry
Maurice Morrow
Sean Neeson
Margaret Ritchie
David Simpson

In Attendance: Alan Patterson (Principal Clerk)
Colin Jones (Assistant Clerk)
Paul Stitt (Clerical Supervisor)
Dr Peter Gilleece (Assembly Research)

The meeting commenced at 10.03am in closed session.

1. Apologies

Dr Esmond Birnie (Mr Beggs attended the meeting as UUP representative in place of Dr Birnie).

Mr David Ford.

Mr Ian Paisley Jnr (Lord Morrow attended the meeting as DUP representative in place of Mr Paisley Jnr).

Mr Peter Weir (Mr Simpson attended the meeting as DUP representative in place of Mr Weir).

2. Draft Minutes of Meeting on 25 July 2006

These were agreed for publication on the Assembly’s website.

3. Matters Arising

The Chairman stated that the Preparation for Government Committee had agreed that there would be five Chairs for the economic sub-group and that the Secretary of State would be contacting Alliance, SDLP and UUP for nominations.

It was noted that the transcript of the meeting on 20th July 2006 had been cleared for publication.

Dr McDonnell joined the meeting at 10.15am.

Members expressed concern that the Economic Development Forum had declined an invitation to attend and agreed that a further request would be made if the sub-group continued to meet after 18 August.

Members noted that the Secretary of State had recently set up a group to consider industrial de-rating. It was agreed to write to the Secretary of State seeking advance notice of relevant initiatives or similar groups being set up in the future.

Members also noted that Maria Eagle, MP, the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Investment was unavailable until early September. It was further agreed to write to the Secretary of State to record the sub-group’s dissatisfaction at the Minister’s unavailability and to ask her to meet with the sub-group at the earliest available opportunity.

4. Revised Work Programme

Members considered a revised work programme of evidence sessions. It was agreed that both NICVA and the Enterprise Agency should be added to the programme of evidence sessions. In addition, the sub-group would seek written submissions from representatives in the new technologies sector.

The meeting continued in open session at 10.45am.

5. Evidence Sessions

The sub-group took evidence from the Strategic Investment Board

The sub-group took evidence from Invest Northern Ireland.

Mr McNarry left the meeting at 12.25pm.
Lord Morrow left the meeting at 12.27pm.

The meeting continued in closed session at 12.55pm.

6. Any Other Business

Members agreed a draft press release for issue.

Members agreed that the deadline for Dr Gilleece’s research paper was Monday 14 August 2006.

It was also agreed that a short meeting should be organised to discuss the issues emerging from the oral evidence.

7. Next Meeting

The next meeting of the sub-group was arranged for Tuesday 1 August 2006 at 10.00 am.

The meeting adjourned at 1.00pm.