Mr. Glyn Roberts:

I thank Chairman for that. It is great to be back and I appreciate the opportunity to present on this very challenging subject.

I want to give members some idea of the damage being done to the Northern Ireland economy as a result of the ongoing flag protests and of our plans to address the problem. By way of background information, my organisation represents more than 1,400 members in every village, town and city in Northern Ireland. Our members include independent retailers of all kinds, wholesalers, the suppliers sector and a number of affiliated chambers of commerce. Over the years we have built excellent relationships. RGDATA and Retail Excellence Ireland and Retail Excellence Ireland and ourselves have been keen of late to work with InterTradeIreland to examine how we can develop the potential of the retail sector as a whole on this island. We are in the early stages of establishing a joint North-South retail forum to address the many challenges facing the sector and, more importantly, how we can create the next generation of retail entrepreneurs on the island, how we can create 21st century town and city centres on the island and how we can develop the island of Ireland as a major retail destination. The island of Ireland is known for its world-class food. Another idea is could we develop this island as a word-class retail destination in the years to come. Those are some of the ideas we have been developing and I would be happy to touch on those at a later stage. I thought it would be useful for the committee to note where we are in the early stages of this process.

In 2012 the retail sector trade in the UK and on the island of Ireland was one of the worst since records began. In the 2011-12 period, nearly 2,000 shops and smaller chain stores closed their doors in Northern Ireland and, sadly, Northern Ireland achieved the status of having the worst shop vacancy rate in the UK - it is twice the national average. One in four shops in Belfast is vacant and across the North one in five is vacant.

We have put forward our ideas in a 50-point plan, which I would be happy to share at some point, on how we can turn the situation around in our retail sector and in our town and city centres. I want to set that out to give the context of where we are at. Many traders thought that Christmas 2012 would be their harvest time given that 2012 was such a bad year. They had hoped that it would be a very productive Christmas but, sadly for many, that was not the case when the flag protests and rioting began.

The impact of the flag protests has brought the commercial heart of Belfast to its knees and severely impacted on the wider Northern Ireland economy. In recent weeks retailers and traders have been struggling to get people through their doors. As a result, many businesses in Belfast have been forced to let staff go and as the situation is showing no signs of improving more job losses are expected in the coming weeks.

A closer analysis of the trade figures at Christmas show that trade in Belfast was to some degree displaced to other town and city centres in the North and to Dublin and there was also a big increase in online and out-of-town trade. Many shoppers in Belfast were put off coming into the city centre on Saturdays because of the regular protest which takes place every Saturday which effectively gridlocks the main part of Belfast city centre. I want to be clear on this. It is not for my organisation to comment on the politics of flying the Union flag or on how Belfast City Council votes, what is crucial for us to do is to comment on the damage being done to Belfast and a number of other towns in the North.

With regard to some of the wider issues in terms of cost, our colleagues in the CBI estimate the loss to our economy to be around £15 million. I would say that is now a very conservative figure. The cost of policing the protest was recently put at £7 million and, again, I would say the figure is likely to be much more than that.

Our colleagues in the Pubs of Ulster who represent the licensed trade in Northern Ireland reveal that pubs, restaurants and hotels are suffering severely as a result of the protests with people not going out and visitors opting to avoid towns and cities. As a result trade has dropped by an average of 30% and in some cases by as much as 55% during recent weeks. In real terms the hospitality industry is suffering a dramatic drop in turnover with one publican alone reporting a loss of £95,000 before Christmas and £60,000 after the Christmas period and with another publican reporting that trade fell by 54% in one week alone. There is grave concern that the situation is showing no signs of improving.

However, what is very hard to put a real figure on is the damage done to Northern Ireland's international reputation at a time where we are seeking to attract more tourists and foreign direct investment. I have lost count of the number of international media, from al-Jazeera to CNN, who have reported the violence, all sending highly damaging images of violence and rioting right across the world. We want to be very clear on this. We believe that the protests, the violence and illegal blocking of roads should end immediately. This is a political problem and can only be resolved by politics. We would urge all the political to go the extra mile to resolve the flag issue and other grievances and, above all, let us take this problem off the streets. The bottom line in all of this is that political stability and greater progress on the shared future agenda is essential for sustained economic development. Divided societies are bad for business.

I am sure that the Chairman and his colleagues saw the television pictures of the riots in east Belfast on the Newtownards Road and the Albertbridge Road and I know that they are meeting some community representatives from Short Strand today. I was born and bred just off the Newtownards road and I still live in east Belfast. That area faces huge challenges in terms of educational underachievement and the people there are crying out for new jobs and private sector investment but the reality is that will not happen while ongoing rioting and violence continue in those areas. Many of our members and local traders in those areas are on their knees, their businesses will not last very much longer, and that will add to the unemployment figures in that area.

However, the Pubs of Ulster and the Belfast Chamber of Commerce and ourselves have joined together to bring solutions to Ministers in the Executive on how to address the problems facing our hospitality and retail sector in Belfast. On Tuesday we met six Executive Ministers from all the parties to outline the need for an immediate funding of a marketing campaign to promote the city centre and to encourage the citizens of Belfast to exercise their civic responsibility and to support our retailers, pubs and restaurants, particularly over the next two weekends which, effectively, are the pay day weekends. This campaign will be called "Backin' Belfast". I have given the clerk a copy of our strategy document, and members may have a copy of it in from of them, which we submitted to the Executive Minsters on how we consider this can be funded. One of the core themes of it is what are the immediate challenges we need to face because doing nothing is not an option.

The second phase of the campaign must aim to try to repair the international damage done to Northern Ireland's reputation. As Belfast is the centre of the regional economy in Northern Ireland, it is vital that our efforts are focused there first. If it suffers; all of Northern Ireland will suffer. We hope that by protecting the future of trade in Belfast we are limiting the damage caused to local businesses right across Northern Ireland, ensuring the sustainability of the local economy as a whole.

We have been greatly encouraged by the level of support we have received from all five parties and welcome the continuing discussions focused on providing immediate support for the business community in Belfast. Without doubt, each Minister we have met has stepped up to the plate and vowed to look at ways to help traders and retailers through this difficult time. We have made significant progress and are looking at a number of options, including a commitment to conduct an immediate marketing campaign and help the businesses worst affected.

There was some discussion about rate relief. We are clear that in the short term that is probably not going to happen. There is no point in giving £1,000 in rate relief to businesses that are losing thousands of pounds every week. What we need are people – footfall – in the city centre, customers in the shops, pubs and restaurants. That is what we hope the marketing campaign will do. This weekend, in particular, there will be great use of social media. There is a Take Back our City campaign and another called Backing Belfast. It will all be trending on Twitter and Facebook and there will be a lot of advertising and offers. I encourage the Chairman and members to visit if they have nothing better to do in the next couple of weekends as they will definitely find a bargain and have a good time in Belfast city centre. I am well aware of the MPs for West Tyrone and Fermanagh-South Tyrone. There are fantastic opportunities in Enniskillen, Omagh and Strabane. I thought I would get in the plug.

I also hope to brief the leaders of Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin while I am in Dublin, as well as representatives of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. If there is one message I want to get across to the committee, it is that I am optimistic that we can move forward. Instead of dwelling on the problem, we must focus on the solutions. We realise that all the marketing in the world will not amount to much unless we have the issues resolved and the protests come to an end. Doing nothing is not an option. Northern Ireland has so much potential in the coming year, with Derry being the City of Culture, the G8 summit and the World Police and Fire Games taking place. I really do believe we will bounce back. I, therefore, urge committee members to pass on to their constituents the message that they should not let the protests put them off. Belfast and Northern Ireland are great places to visit. If one is a tourist, we have some of the best restaurants and retailers in the world. I, therefore, urge members not to be put off by what they see. They should come up and support us. I do believe we will get through this.