Commenting on Thursday\u2019s Assembly election, the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association (NIIRTA) called for \u201cleadership\u201d as the parties enter into talks with the aim of forming an executive.<\/p>\n
Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire has given MLAs just three weeks to work out the details, but there is concern that the largest parties – Sinn Fein and the DUP \u2013 will not enter power sharing while former First Minister, the DUP\u2019s Arlene Foster, insists on staying in the post.<\/p>\n
The election had been called after Sinn Fein accused the DUP leader of \u201carrogance\u201d for refusing to stand aside over a botched renewable heating incentive scheme.<\/p>\n
NIIRTA\u2019s chief executive Glyn Roberts, however, said the key challenge is for the political parties to \u201chit the ground running\u201d with immediate talks on forming an administration.<\/p>\n
\u201cContinuing political instability is both bad for business and the economy as a whole,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cDirect rule is not an option because while devolution has been far from perfect, it is considerably preferable to government by unaccountable ministers and civil servants.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mr Roberts added that NIIRTA members wanted to see a Programme for Government, a Budget and a Brexit Plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cMore importantly the business community needs to be assured that lessons will be learned from this crisis to enable the economy to move forward,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need our MLAs to focus on solutions, not problems to this crisis and to see real leadership from our political parties.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, CBI Northern Ireland director Angela McGowan said it is time for NI politicians to \u201crefocus their efforts\u201d on forming a functioning devolved executive.<\/p>\n
\u201cEconomic prosperity and political stability go hand in hand,\u201d she said. \u201cWith the immense changes that lie ahead as the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, the economic stakes for Northern Ireland are exceptionally high.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo successfully steer us through this challenging period, and facilitate the creation of a competitive economy that can generate 50,000 new jobs by 2021, business needs a fully functioning Executive that delivers long term political stability.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Northern Ireland\u2019s newly elected MLAs need to conclude negotiations quickly and avoid direct rule, according to a body representing local retailers. Commenting on Thursday\u2019s Assembly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":1856,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[10],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/03\/Parliament_Buildings_Stormont-e1426001430200.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4757"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4757"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4757\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4759,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4757\/revisions\/4759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neighbourhoodretailer.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}