Letter: The Programme for Government in Northern Ireland has been a long time coming but is an achievement of sorts

The last time we had a PfG in effect was 2015 (a draft in 2016 never received final approval). It has been a long wait and we will not know until Monday the content of this offering.

That we will have a PfG is an achievement of sorts. Yesterday’s announcement – especially the emphasis on nine priorities – hinted that we may be seeing an emphasis on a limited number of higher level objective as opposed to very long lists of objective. This is commendable (avoiding not seeing the wood for the trees) although there would have been a strong case to be even more minimalist – say, five mission priorities.

Ideally, the PfG would have come before the budget but we are where we are. The executive needs to pay more than lip service to the importance of getting the economy right. Without a competitive economy we cannot really sustain all our other (social etc) objectives. Of particular importance will be whether they prioritise trying to narrow the productivity gap (output per worker) compared to the rest of the UK.

Dr Esmond Birnie, Senior Economist, Ulster University Business School