Have your say on the location of public sector jobs

The first in a series of public meetings led by Professor George Bain on the Review of the Policy on Location of Public Sector Jobs starts in the North-West in Londonderry’s Verbal Arts Centre, on Wednesday, 16 April.

Professor Bain heads up a seven-member Review Team appointed by the Northern Ireland Executive to carry out a formal review of Government policy on the location of public sector jobs in Northern Ireland.

In February, Professor Bain announced that the Review Team was to embark on a province-wide opinion-gathering exercise and would be reporting back to Government in late summer.

Speaking ahead of the first in the series of public meetings, Professor Bain said: “It is important that we hear as many views as possible from interested parties and stakeholders and, indeed, all sections of the community on this important subject. The Review Team will be visiting a total of 12 locations across Northern Ireland in the coming days and weeks as part of the opinion gathering exercise.”

The Team’s terms of reference, agreed by the Executive, reflect the need for a strategic approach, an affirmative dispersal policy, sustainability, international experience of job dispersal, the Regional Development Strategy and the need to tackle economic disparities. This is the public’s opportunity to have its voice heard and influence the outcome of the review.

“The Review will adopt a balanced approach to achieve what, in my opinion, is our over-riding goal – to come up with a solution that best enhances the sustainable economic and social development of Northern Ireland,” Professor Bain added.

For more information on the time and location of all 12 public meetings log on to the Department of Finance and Personnel website.

Notes to Editors:

1. The first public meeting is in Londonderry in the Verbal Arts Centre from 11 am to 12.30pm and then moving to Strabane at the Strabane Community Library from 3pm until 4.30pm.
2. The panel is led by Professor Sir George Bain. Canadian by birth, he was President and vice-Chancellor of Queen’s University, Belfast until 2004.
3. The other members of the panel include Dr David Dobbin, who is well known in the local dairy industry as Group Chief Executive of United Dairy Farmers; Brian Hanna a former Town Clerk and Chief Executive of Belfast City Council; Janice Tracey, the current Chairperson of Derry Chamber of Commerce; Feargal McCormick, Managing Partner of FPM Accountants LLP, in Newry; Joan Ruddock, a former Chair of Belfast City Hospital; and David Watkins, a retired senior civil servant from Northern Ireland.
4. For more background information log on toDepartment of Finance and Personnel website
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