Unless we take radical steps to improve our manufacturing performance we will have wasted the opportunity created by this crisis

(The letter can be read here: ‘This virus crisis shows up how much NI’s manufacturing prowess has crumbled – but we can turn it around’)

He said that the demise of the NI textile was brought about by EU strategies, therefore Brexit offers us a bright future. He assumes that if the NI textile industry still survived it could produce all Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) required, because of its world wide reputation, international links and high level of skills.

My experience after some years in the business was that the management ability, equipment, vision, and effective dynamism were totally inadequate in most of the textile industry.

Much manufacturing was moving to low cost countries due to economic reality and there was no realisation of how to make our products compete effectively.

We needed more speedy and reliable delivery, better design and quality. The far eastern competition had cheaper products but much longer delivery times, bigger transport costs, and variable quality.

Even when we had the best equipment some of our management was so inept that the problems were unfixable.

Having compared some of our industry with the European competition the comparison was depressing, but also stimulating. I could see what was possible.

But we still have the same problems in parts of our local industry and unless they are addressed we will continue down the path to total dependency on financial handouts.

My recent experiences include an NI public body budgeting for delivery times of a project being twice that of GB, products promised in five months taking 10 months with many lies told during the period, service promised within three days and eventually delivered some 10 days later.

Unless local government wakes up and takes radical steps to improve our overall performance we will have wasted the opportunity created by the crisis of this pandemic, we will continue to be wasteful, be unprepared for foreseeable eventualities (an epidemic was predicted, a financial crisis is predictable, flooding is here, unemployment will increase, education will continue to be divisive and ineffective to those who need it most, maybe the health service should be added!).

Lots of people have the power to stop something happening but almost nobody has the power to make anything happen.

Tom Ekin, Belfast