§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many additional jobs in industry have been created with the help of the Department of Commerce, the Local Enterprise Development Unit and the Northern Ireland Development Council or Finance Corporation according to official statements, in each of the last five financial years; how many of these jobs exist at present; and how many are actually filled by workers.
§ Mr. ConcannonThe following are the published figures showing the number of jobs promoted by the Department of Commerce and the Local Enterprise 727W Development Unit in the last five financial years:
Year ended 31st March
Year ended 31st March Department of Commerce 1973 … … … 7,002 1974 … … … 6,041 1975 … … … 5,117 1976 … … … 1,487 1977 … … … 3,787
Local Enterprise Development Unit 1973 … … … 1,166 1974 … … … 1,614 1975 … … … 1,130 1976 … … … 789 1977 … … … 943 Jobs promoted jointly by the Department of Commerce and by the Northern Ire- land Development Agency or the Northern Ireland Finance Corporation are included in the figures for the Department of Commerce. The number of jobs provided by companies sponsored by the Northern Ireland Development Agency alone was 148 at 31st March 1977.
Largely because of the time lag between a decision to invest and the employment of workers on a project, it is not possible to make a valid comparison between the number of jobs promoted and the number of jobs actually filled. However, there is no reason to suppose that firms are not using their best endeavours to achieve the agreed targets.
§ Mr. Kilfedderasked the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many manufacturing enterprises employ five to 10 people, 10 to 25 people, 25 to 50 people, 50 to 100 people, 100 to 250 people and over 250 people, respectively.
§ Mr. ConcannonIn June 1976, the latest date for which figures are available, the number of establishments in the manufacturing sector in Northern Ireland categorised according to the number of people they employ was as follows:
EMPLOYEES 5–10 11–24 25–49 50–99 100–249 250+
Establishments 439 447 265 214 188 111