“UNACCEPTABLE AND UNFORGIVABLE”: BELFAST CHAMBER REACTS TO EXECUTIVE ANNOUNCEMENT OF ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS

Commenting on today’s announcement of additional restrictions by the NI Executive, Belfast Chamber Chief Executive Simon Hamilton said, “For weeks now, businesses who have experienced a difficult 2021, have been subjected to a drip feed of speculation and scaremongering about possible lockdowns and further restrictions. As the rhetoric ramped up, the impact on businesses was very real as millions of pounds of trade disappeared, causing owners and their teams huge distress.

Today, the Executive has added insult to injury. As well as having to deal with the impact of additional measures, businesses haven’t been offered a single penny in financial support. That is simply unacceptable and unforgivable. What sort of a message does that send to the thousands of people who rely on jobs in the affected sectors and their supply chains to heat their homes and feed their families? It is shameful that they now face into an uncertain future after all they’ve endured already.  It feels like businesses, their owners and their staff have been cast aside without a care”.