Sir, - In his recent article "Weak NI Economy Needs South Link" (Opinion, November 28th) Garret FitzGerald discussed the comparative performances of the Northern Ireland and Republic economies. In the course of this article he made several inaccurate statements.
Personal income per head in 1995 was higher in Northern Ireland than in the South, contrary to Dr FitzGerald's statement that the figure was 5 per cent lower. Furthermore, while OECD reports indicate little difference in the cost of living between the Republic of Ireland and the UK in 1995, Northern Ireland's cost of living was some 10 per cent below that for the UK as a whole. When these two points are taken together it is clear that the 1995 standard of living in NI was above that in the Republic. It remains to be seen how the situation has altered since then, although it would be surprising if the Republic's very high growth rate had not led to some convergence.
Dr FitzGerald has stated that the public sector in Northern Ireland is twice as large as in the rest of the UK. This is incorrect. Public sector employment accounts for 33 per cent of employee jobs in NI, compared with 22 per cent in the UK as a whole. The difference is in part due to additional security-related jobs.
The assertion that NI's economic performance has been worse than that of any other UK region is incorrect. During this decade NI has been one of the best performers among the UK regions. Real GDP has increased by 15.6 per cent between 1989 and 1996 compared with 9.1 per cent for the UK as a whole. Furthermore, manufacturing output increased by 24 per cent between 1990 and 1998 compared with 3.5 per cent for the UK as a whole.
Dr FitzGerald's reference to the IDB's failure to create employment, attributed to "a range of studies", also does not accord with the facts. During the past four years alone the overall employment growth in IDB client companies has been almost 5,000 and 25,000 job creations have been supported in the same period. Northern Ireland, with 2.5 per cent of the UK population, has attracted 8 per cent of UK inward investment. - Yours, etc., Jill Heron,
Press Officer, Department of Economic Development (NI), Massey Avenue, Belfast 4.