Professor Richard Barnett, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ulster, today attacked what he called the three fallacies of Northern Ireland's economy: that the public sector is too large, that public sector wages are too high, and that the labour market does not work.

Speaking at the start of the University's winter graduation ceremonies, Professor Barnett told his audience of students, academics and parents:

"Fallacy number one is that the public sector is too large. The public sector is not too large. The private sector is too small, so let's concentrate on expanding it. And, in any case since to a very large extent the size of our public sector is determined by the block grant that we receive from Whitehall, I am not sure what those who claim that it is too large are suggesting. Are they, for example, suggesting that we give some of the money back to London to be spent on health, education and economic development in England, rather than here in Northern Ireland? Surely not? And, of course, any such reduction in public expenditure here would serve to reduce overall spending in the economy, thereby serving to decrease the private sector, not expand it."

Turning to the level of public sector wages, the Vice-Chancellor said:

"Fallacy number two is that public sector wages are too high. Public sector wages are not too high. But the present under-development of the high value added private sector means that in some areas private sector wages are too low. To claim that public sector wages are too high reflects a defeatist approach in which Northern Ireland is able to compete only by offering a low wage economy. Such an economy would, of course, be devoid of our brightest and best who would "vote with their feet" and seek work elsewhere."

And finally, Professor Barnett addressed the issue of education:

"Fallacy number three is that the labour market does not work and that too many of our students take the wrong courses at university. Whilst there is always room for improvement in the information provided to potential students through, for example, the careers service, in general the labour market does work and students make informed choices. As an example of this we need only to look at the building, construction and property development industry locally, which is one of the region's most successful sectors, and arguably our most successful sector. The industry locally comprises many world class firms who are winning major contracts throughout the world."

"So, let's put these three fallacies behind us and work together to achieve the executive's vision of a dynamic, high-valued added, high-skilled, private sector economy. That must be Northern Ireland's distinctive selling point. And at the University of Ulster we will not lag behind in playing our part and we look forward to the challenge. Our young people deserve no less," Professor Barnett said.

Moving to the topic of the 11+ proposals recently announced by Minister Catriona Ruane, the Vice-Chancellor said:

"As Vice-Chancellor I welcome Minister Ruane's recent announcement that the 11 plus is to be abolished. The 11 plus is an unfair and wasteful examination and, of course, in its current form it has relatively few supporters. Further, as I said earlier, fundamentally this ceremony is about celebrating success. Yet many people graduating today, and indeed several members of this platform party, will at the age of 11 have been labelled as failures.

"So not only is the current 11 plus system unfair and wasteful it is also a nonsense. And in making this point I wish to emphasise that it is a criticism of thesystem not of our many excellent schools, both in the grammar and secondary sectors. And it is most certainly not a criticism of our teachers who are amongst the very best in these islands.

"I am of the firm opinion that 14 is a much more appropriate age at which informed choice, complemented perhaps by some form of selection, can take place and can be meaningful."

The University of Ulster graduation ceremonies began today at Coleraine, move to the Jordanstown campus to-morrow, and continue there until Thursday. Over 1600 students will receive their degrees and diplomas over the three days of ceremonies.

Full text of the Vice-Chancellor's speech can be downloaded from:

http://news.ulster.ac.uk/podcasts/Barnett07.doc

For further information, please contact:

David Young
Telephone: 028 90366074
Email: David Young