Dear Madam, - The G8 summit is now long gone and the lick of paint around our towns and villages has began to fade. Over the past thirty years almost all the factories in our county have closed, causing many many job losses with very few successful major business start-ups. We in Fermanagh do not have the advantage of areas such as Omagh, Dungannon or Portadown, which have many highly skilled businesses including engineering and numerous meat plants employing masses.

Fermanagh needs an immediate massive injection of cash to help bring some life and vibrancy to the county’s business economy. I would have thought by now that at least one call centre would have made its way to the county, but no. If DETI cannot convince many of the so-called foreign investors to make their way to Fermanagh then encouragement through business conferences and seminars for existing and potential local businesses, should be commenced to encourage promoting new start-ups or expansion of existing companies. Fermanagh cannot survive on farming and seasonal tourism alone but it does appear that any future investments will have to be local home-grown products.

It is indeed pleasing to see that the numbers of unemployed continues to fall within Northern Ireland and the economic outlook somewhat brighter. However, we have only recovered to a small degree as to what jobs have been lost over the past six years. I am also aware that many many young people have left County Fermanagh in search of jobs up country or in far off lands. I have no doubt that such movement of people whether short or long term has helped disguise the real figures in the county in terms of unemployed. One has to wonder as to what the dole queues would have been like if our youth had not left the county to seek work abroad.

While it is pleasing to see InvestNI indicate its intentions to open a ‘pop-up’ office in Enniskillen, Fermanagh needs something more than a ‘fly-by-night’ arrangement that attempts to disguise pitiful government response in the West. Fermanagh needs help now in providing much needed employment rather than temporary vague investment initiatives! There is a responsibility upon ALL Fermanagh’s MLAs and Councillors to step up to the mark in encouraging job creation and investment. To date, none have proved their worth.

I would encourage businesses in the county that have survived recession to investigate ways through Enterprise Development, planning for expansion and exporting of products. While investments from external countries propped up by InvestNI subsidies are important, the real issue is that in Fermanagh “Investment will have to begin at home through indigenous companies”.

Yours faithfully, Alex Elliott TUV Fermanagh