Church leader appeals for Bombardier retraining

Last week, the Province was dealt a severe economic blow when the Canadian-owned aerospace manufacturer said that 580 jobs will be lost this year at its Belfast plant with a further 500 to go during 2017.

The Rev Brian Anderson, an east Belfast-man “born and bred” and who is president of the Methodist Church in Ireland, said he was “alarmed and saddened” at the jobs cuts.

He revealed that he himself “experienced the pain of redundancy” before entering the ministry and so has some idea of how Bombardier employees are feeling at this time.

He added: “I would encourage the ministers in the Stormont Executive to do all in their power to provide retraining for those who will become casualties in this round of redundancies.”