Pathway document fails to deliver certainty for business

Press Releases 2 Mar 2021

Tina McKenzie comments on the Executive's plan to ease restrictions

Following the publication of the Northern Ireland Executive’s ‘Pathway to Recovery’ document, FSB NI Policy Chair, Tina McKenzie, has said that it does not provide the certainty which businesses need to plan appropriately.

Commenting, Tina McKenzie said:

“Small businesses have always accepted that decision making should be driven by data and not dates, however, this document does not provide any real guide to allow businesses to plan.

“With five separate phases and nine different pathways, which may not be aligned, the risk is that we simply create a messy patchwork of restrictions which are difficult to comprehend and lose public confidence and cooperation.

“While we are told decision-making will be based on evidence, the document offers little transparency regarding the targets that need to be achieved to trigger next steps; instead, we are told that the ‘R’ rate will be a guiding principle.

“Businesses and the public are mature enough to understand that provisional dates are exactly that, provisional, and therefore potentially subject to change; the lack of detailed metrics raises questions as to what conditions will need to prevail in order that restrictions can be eased.

“It is regrettable that the Executive has not felt it appropriate to share more information with the public which would have encouraged everyone to work together towards the common purpose of ensuring that this lockdown is the last.”