17/02/2016 BBC Newsline


17/02/2016

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1,000 jobs are to go at the aerospace firm Bombardier.

:00:00.:00:21.

I'm live outside the company's East Belfast operation where there's

:00:22.:00:24.

Everybody's depressed about it. Morale is down.

:00:25.:00:35.

The troubled C Series jet has put the firm under

:00:36.:00:38.

We'll have political reaction as well as reaction from Canada

:00:39.:00:42.

where Bombardier's parent company is based.

:00:43.:00:46.

And in other news tonight: The way ahead for health here,

:00:47.:00:49.

can politicians and experts come up with a workable plan?

:00:50.:00:54.

And a wintry chill with a widespread frost tonight but, apart from a few

:00:55.:00:58.

wintry showers, many parts dry into tomorrow.

:00:59.:01:06.

Up to 1000 jobs of lost at Bombardier. The company has

:01:07.:01:23.

struggled to get its new planes off the ground and there's no

:01:24.:01:26.

underestimating the impact of today's announcement.

:01:27.:01:35.

Because underestimate the importance of this company.

:01:36.:01:44.

Bombardier is a vitally important company.

:01:45.:01:46.

Aside from direct employment, it supports thousands more

:01:47.:01:48.

It puts about ?180 million worth of wages into our

:01:49.:01:51.

It accounts for about 10% of manufacturing exports.

:01:52.:01:54.

It also spends a lot on research and training.

:01:55.:01:56.

So when Bombardier is having difficulties it should

:01:57.:01:58.

Workers were braced for the worst because the company was to release

:01:59.:02:04.

gloomy 2015 financial results in Montreal.

:02:05.:02:05.

But those results were pre-empted by a statement in Belfast announcing

:02:06.:02:09.

This setback had been looming. Uncertainty has hung over the

:02:10.:02:26.

workforce for many months as a financial storm cloud moved in from

:02:27.:02:32.

Canada. Bombardier is going to spread this job is paying across a

:02:33.:02:39.

period of 24 months. 580 posts will go this year with the potential for

:02:40.:02:47.

the same again to be shared in 2017. Delays and cost overruns the new

:02:48.:02:54.

passenger plane has four in the business into turmoil. Savings have

:02:55.:02:58.

had to be found on jobs are now set to go just weeks after a pay offer

:02:59.:03:05.

was rejected. Everybody's down. What do you expect? Morale is low. When

:03:06.:03:13.

you go to happen but we didn't think it would be as large as it was.

:03:14.:03:21.

People might not have jobs. But I hope I'm employed next year but I'm

:03:22.:03:27.

62 so it will affect the younger ones more than me. Locally, bon but

:03:28.:03:33.

-- Bombardier employs 500 500 people. Roughly 500 are agency

:03:34.:03:40.

contract is who will be among the first ago. The permanent staff are

:03:41.:03:44.

concentrated in east but others are based in Don Murray, new nappy and

:03:45.:03:46.

new canards. These Belfast are dealt with

:03:47.:03:53.

employment lawyers before and some felt the pain of the workforce.

:03:54.:03:58.

There's a message beyond the worker, a message to government in the sense

:03:59.:04:05.

of we need to bring jobs into Northern Ireland in general but in

:04:06.:04:07.

particular into communities like East Belfast. Bombardier has had

:04:08.:04:12.

huge historic levels of government financial support and the executive

:04:13.:04:19.

believes it is importance to the economy is not diminished by today's

:04:20.:04:23.

announcement. I look to the changes of the company has made, painful as

:04:24.:04:27.

those maybe I submitted to the workers, painful as they have been,

:04:28.:04:31.

it replaces the organisation to a position where it can grow for the

:04:32.:04:35.

future. I've been with the senior management on five occasions and we

:04:36.:04:43.

know it has been confirmed that the long-term future of the Belfast

:04:44.:04:47.

plant is secure. The company had built 2016 as a year of transition.

:04:48.:04:53.

After months of speculation, its turnaround strategy is now known to

:04:54.:04:57.

involve what was feared, large scale job losses.

:04:58.:05:00.

As Julian was saying, most of Bombardier's recent problems

:05:01.:05:03.

stem from the development of the new C Series airliner.

:05:04.:05:06.

I've been having a closer look at what's gone wrong.

:05:07.:05:12.

The C Series is Bombardier 's dream of the future. Cutting edge

:05:13.:05:21.

technology, great fuel efficiency and the best engines on the market.

:05:22.:05:26.

Its aim, to take on the giant of Boeing and Airbus in the short haul

:05:27.:05:32.

passenger market. It was first conceived in 2004. The Belfast wing

:05:33.:05:35.

factory was officially opened by the Prime Minister and Mr decade later.

:05:36.:05:42.

Developing a new playing is a time-consuming and expensive

:05:43.:05:44.

business. The C Series has been beset by cost overruns and allays.

:05:45.:05:51.

It was originally due to enter service in 2013, it should finally

:05:52.:05:55.

be flying commercially this year. It started out with the development

:05:56.:06:00.

budget of $3.4 billion. That sought to 5.4 billion, it is also entering

:06:01.:06:05.

a fiercely competitive market. Knowing and Airbus have tweaked

:06:06.:06:10.

their models and slash prices, as a result sales of the C Series have

:06:11.:06:14.

been slow. The launch target was 300 orders but only 243 have been

:06:15.:06:19.

booked, all of this has weakened the entire Bombardier company. They took

:06:20.:06:24.

an enormous risk, they're well out of their comfort zone, they have

:06:25.:06:30.

produced a good aeroplane but it is coming in the wrong place and at the

:06:31.:06:34.

wrong time. All of the major international airlines went on a

:06:35.:06:40.

spending spree for new aircraft last year and thousands of new aircraft

:06:41.:06:44.

or books by both Boeing and Airbus. The C Series didn't join in that

:06:45.:06:50.

party. The State government in Colback has effectively given the C

:06:51.:06:55.

Series a 1 billion dollar bailout and more public money could follow.

:06:56.:06:59.

It's not forecast to turn a profit until 2020 at the earliest. The

:07:00.:07:05.

company needs to cut costs and conserve cash. That's what today's

:07:06.:07:06.

job losses are about. There was some better news

:07:07.:07:08.

for the C Series today when Air Canada signed what's call

:07:09.:07:11.

a letter of intent to buy 75 That's not quite a firm order

:07:12.:07:14.

but it's pretty certain that it But Bombardier needs lots more

:07:15.:07:18.

orders like this. The positive was something the head

:07:19.:07:22.

of Bombardier locally, Michael Ryan, was stressing when I spoke

:07:23.:07:25.

to him this afternoon. I asked him to explain why today's

:07:26.:07:27.

move was necessary. Bombardier announced today the year

:07:28.:07:39.

end results which if you look at it was close to $5 billion loss. They

:07:40.:07:43.

also announced some good news and the sales of the C Series but

:07:44.:07:48.

fundamentally the sustainability of the company needs to be addressed

:07:49.:07:52.

because that is not possible to continue and part of that is a

:07:53.:07:54.

transformation which is under way and part of that transformation is

:07:55.:07:59.

optimising the workforce and that is that they've global level. When we

:08:00.:08:06.

look at the aerospace side in Belfast, it's the single largest

:08:07.:08:11.

site in the aerospace business. Therefore, we are also impacted.

:08:12.:08:14.

Bombardier is a big company, Belfast is a reasonably small part of that,

:08:15.:08:19.

with up to somewhere like a low-cost location like Bombardier in Morocco,

:08:20.:08:24.

what kind of assurances can you give in the long-term future of this

:08:25.:08:28.

business in Northern Ireland? Money to improve competitiveness, there

:08:29.:08:32.

are things which we do which we will be core technologies is a move

:08:33.:08:36.

forward. As a move to more complex and advanced products and services,

:08:37.:08:40.

more value-added products, the wings and the C Series and he is a large

:08:41.:08:45.

is, that will be core for as going forward but there are processes and

:08:46.:08:50.

fabrication that we do which we have do we look at because we will likely

:08:51.:08:55.

not be competitive at them at all. The global aerospace world is

:08:56.:08:59.

looking at optimising it and that it was going to what we call lower cost

:09:00.:09:04.

countries and if we want to compete being in a global marketplace needs

:09:05.:09:08.

to take advantage of that. Where the relevant but I have to say the

:09:09.:09:12.

technologies we are investing in, the value-added processes, the

:09:13.:09:17.

programmes were looking at a key part Belfast's future and will

:09:18.:09:21.

continue to be. If I read that correctly, you are saying the

:09:22.:09:24.

high-value work around wings composite 's honour that will stay

:09:25.:09:30.

in Belfast, some of the more basic processes, there's every chance that

:09:31.:09:34.

work will have do go to lower cost locations. That is what will appear

:09:35.:09:39.

at and we can't rule that out. Honesty we have factories in Mexico

:09:40.:09:43.

and Morocco and we have a world-class supply chain and that is

:09:44.:09:44.

based in Northern Ireland. Before we came on air,

:09:45.:09:47.

I spoke to the Canadian business I started by asking him if the jobs

:09:48.:09:49.

cuts here were making It is. We are aware that you have a

:09:50.:10:03.

high-tech manufacturing that you put 100 million pounds into the company

:10:04.:10:07.

and your concerns are the same as Ahlers. Even though we have the

:10:08.:10:13.

headquarters here, you do a lot of the assembly, the important and core

:10:14.:10:18.

work and we as a country as well are concerned about that and that is why

:10:19.:10:21.

the government has been funding a lot of money into Bombardier to make

:10:22.:10:24.

sure it stays in Canada with those high-tech jobs, not just important

:10:25.:10:29.

here but in Northern Ireland as well so we share similarities as far as

:10:30.:10:33.

the concern of the health of Bombardier going forward. Our job is

:10:34.:10:39.

going there as well? 2000 jobs to be slated in the Montreal office. This

:10:40.:10:42.

is as part of the 7000 job announcement. What is interesting is

:10:43.:10:47.

in the C Series division they are saying no jobs will be cut, they'll

:10:48.:10:50.

be increasing that division but we are seeing real jobs are losing the

:10:51.:10:57.

lion's share, 3200 jobs so we are affected here as well. Is the view

:10:58.:11:02.

in Canada that people be happy to keep the jobs there and not worry so

:11:03.:11:05.

much about the jobs elsewhere in Northern Ireland. I don't know if we

:11:06.:11:11.

would say that. We have affinity with Northern Ireland but people in

:11:12.:11:16.

Montreal where the company is based would be concerned in keeping it in

:11:17.:11:21.

Montreal and there are 34,000 jobs reliant on Bombardier staying in

:11:22.:11:25.

Colback so I wouldn't say widgets missive of Ireland but we are

:11:26.:11:29.

sharing the pain. What you think the long-term prognosis is? This is

:11:30.:11:35.

where it gets tricky because there are in a negative cash flow

:11:36.:11:39.

position, this has cost them $5.5 billion to get this up and running.

:11:40.:11:44.

2 billion in over costs and what comes down to this single aisle jet

:11:45.:11:50.

which is 150 passengers, it goes directly against Boeing and Airbus

:11:51.:11:55.

and those are very large pocketed companies and there is concern with

:11:56.:11:59.

analysts saying have a bit off more than they can chew? Does it have the

:12:00.:12:04.

resources to be able to go up against those competitors or are we

:12:05.:12:07.

going to be in a spiral of continuing to have to fund them?

:12:08.:12:11.

Before we came on air, the Enterprise Minister Jonathan

:12:12.:12:13.

Bell insisted Bombardier's future in Northern Ireland is secure.

:12:14.:12:15.

Did you know this was going to happen?

:12:16.:12:21.

What I want to do is insure for those that are affected by the

:12:22.:12:27.

global restructuring of the company can have the opportunity to

:12:28.:12:31.

re-skill, retrain, the accredited to apply with a competent CV for new

:12:32.:12:36.

money factor in jobs in Northern Ireland. My priority is to them,

:12:37.:12:42.

it's a global restructuring, what I do know is that the Belfast plant is

:12:43.:12:48.

secure... Can you give any more money to the company because we have

:12:49.:12:51.

invested very heavily in Bombardier so far? I have been in Canada twice,

:12:52.:12:58.

I have met their management five times, over the last number of

:12:59.:13:01.

months, they are committed to Belfast. To the long-term secure

:13:02.:13:06.

future of Belfast and aircraft manufacturing and I have asked them

:13:07.:13:10.

is anything more that I could have done? To secure the jobs quick

:13:11.:13:16.

update there is no more assistance that could've done anything to

:13:17.:13:20.

prevent what has happened today. What ratios can you give to the

:13:21.:13:24.

other aerospace companies working in Northern Ireland that their

:13:25.:13:26.

workforces won't be affected by these job cuts? I can tell you that

:13:27.:13:33.

of office 625 companies in Northern Ireland that our manufacturing of

:13:34.:13:37.

aircraft industry and all of the aircraft industry from Brazil,

:13:38.:13:43.

Airbus, Boeing, bombarding you. We are manufacturing for them all. Some

:13:44.:13:48.

of them will be supplying a lot in the chain to Bombardier but for

:13:49.:13:53.

others some 75% of their workforce does not involve Bombardier at all.

:13:54.:14:00.

That is because the department of a strategic view to spread how we look

:14:01.:14:03.

to gain orders and we have now got orders from the entire supply chain

:14:04.:14:06.

throughout the world for the aircraft Corporation 's and we are

:14:07.:14:10.

in a strong place. The industry is valued at ?1.1 billion. We know in

:14:11.:14:17.

the future that there is a need for tens of thousands of new aircraft

:14:18.:14:20.

and I believe our companies will continue to step up to the plate to

:14:21.:14:23.

deliver for the economy and put more than that ?1.1 billion back into

:14:24.:14:26.

Northern Ireland. When I spoke to the Secretary

:14:27.:14:28.

of State, who's in Washington, I asked if she could have done

:14:29.:14:31.

anything to either stop today's decision by Bombardier

:14:32.:14:34.

or lessen its impact. Sadly, Bombardier have been clear

:14:35.:14:42.

that there wasn't any intervention by the UK Government or the

:14:43.:14:47.

executive that could have prevented today's announcement. It is

:14:48.:14:53.

unfortunately part of the global restructuring that is needed to

:14:54.:14:58.

bring down Bombardier 's costs. The UK Government and the executive have

:14:59.:15:02.

provided huge amount of support for the C Series, well over ?100 million

:15:03.:15:09.

over recent years and whilst this is hugely devastating news for the

:15:10.:15:13.

people facing redundancy I think we can all take some comfort from the

:15:14.:15:17.

fact that Bombardier have made it clear they committed to the C Series

:15:18.:15:23.

project and committed to Belfast is a hugely important manufacturing

:15:24.:15:27.

centre for them. You confident about the long-term prognosis for the in

:15:28.:15:32.

Belfast? Yes, I am. From my discussions with ministers and my

:15:33.:15:39.

understanding of the Bombardier operation, they're firmly supportive

:15:40.:15:42.

of the Belfast operation and UK Government working with the

:15:43.:15:46.

executive will continue to do all we can to ensure that Northern Ireland

:15:47.:15:49.

is one of the best places in the world to do business. The timing

:15:50.:15:52.

couldn't be worse than you considering you're in Washington to

:15:53.:16:00.

sell Northern Ireland. The timing is terrible for those affected by

:16:01.:16:03.

redundancy or facing it but I think it is important for me, other

:16:04.:16:10.

ministers and the executive to be out and about promoting Northern

:16:11.:16:13.

Ireland as a brilliant place to do business. That is important. Also

:16:14.:16:19.

today around 81% of businesses in Northern Ireland think that leaving

:16:20.:16:23.

the European Union is a bad idea. To zap you personally a difficult

:16:24.:16:26.

position? During the Reformation and it will be important to consider

:16:27.:16:30.

carefully the views of business and to listen to voices from the

:16:31.:16:35.

business committee on both sides of this important debate before people

:16:36.:16:38.

make up their minds whether to vote to leave the EU or stay in. For you

:16:39.:16:44.

personally, as Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, would it not

:16:45.:16:46.

make campaign to leave the European Union difficult for you personally

:16:47.:16:51.

whenever 81% of businesses hearsay would not be a good idea? Every

:16:52.:16:57.

individual and adult in Northern Ireland will be able to make their

:16:58.:17:02.

own choice about the future relationship of the UK with the rest

:17:03.:17:09.

of Europe and no doubt issues around jobs and our trading relationship

:17:10.:17:12.

with Europe will be at the heart of that debate.

:17:13.:17:13.

Let's go back now for a final word with John Campbell.

:17:14.:17:19.

Obviously such an important issue. We've heard it referred to by the

:17:20.:17:24.

enterprise minister. What about the other companies who supply

:17:25.:17:32.

Bombardier? Aerospace is a priority for the executive. There are a

:17:33.:17:35.

cluster of aerospace complete in Northern Ireland and the enterprise

:17:36.:17:38.

minister makes a fair point. Although Bombardier sits in the

:17:39.:17:43.

middle, those companies have diversify and supply lots more

:17:44.:17:48.

different businesses. Engineering in great happy, they make wind parts

:17:49.:17:54.

for Airbus. Another company have started up work in China. The whole

:17:55.:17:59.

industry is not the pennant and Bombardier will stop they have other

:18:00.:18:02.

options. Something which was mentioned to me was when Bombardier

:18:03.:18:08.

is talking about getting rid of work and not doing it in the plans

:18:09.:18:11.

because it doesn't make sense not miss the real that work gets sent

:18:12.:18:14.

offshore, it may go to other companies within Northern Ireland.

:18:15.:18:18.

There may be some opportunities in the supply chain rather than risks.

:18:19.:18:22.

Any reassurance at all if you work Bombardier? He said quite important

:18:23.:18:32.

things. He was clear that lower skill lower value work will not be

:18:33.:18:37.

done here in Belfast. It no longer makes economic financial sense. That

:18:38.:18:42.

work will be done elsewhere. What he emphasises the high-value work, the

:18:43.:18:48.

skilled work, the high-tech processes and making the wings. That

:18:49.:18:52.

will continue here. We have a competitive advantage, or the

:18:53.:18:57.

knowledge. That reads across to our manufacturing sector as a whole. We

:18:58.:19:01.

cannot compete on price for a lot of things but what we have to compete

:19:02.:19:07.

on his quality and innovation. Briefly, what about the impact on

:19:08.:19:13.

the wider community? Bombardier, although it is based on his Belfast,

:19:14.:19:17.

people come from all the Northern Ireland to work in this place.

:19:18.:19:20.

Generally in the aerospace sector are good, wages there will be above

:19:21.:19:24.

the private sector median so the fact that they are shedding jobs

:19:25.:19:28.

will be felt in households right across Northern Ireland.

:19:29.:19:30.

Plenty to come before seven, including a cautious welcome

:19:31.:19:32.

for the latest rise in house prices here.

:19:33.:19:42.

The man tasked with reforming health and social care here is calling

:19:43.:19:46.

on politicians to be brave and prepared to

:19:47.:19:50.

The call came at a political health summit where the focus

:19:51.:19:54.

was on politicians to put politics aside and health first.

:19:55.:19:59.

They were asked to sign up to a set of principles which would guarantee

:20:00.:20:02.

reform of the system, including how some hospitals deliver services.

:20:03.:20:06.

Our Health Correspondent Marie-Louise Connolly reports.

:20:07.:20:12.

Like thousands of people, Derek is caught up in the system waiting to

:20:13.:20:21.

see a consultant. He has MS and has compared waiting to a horror story.

:20:22.:20:26.

System is broken. It's not working. The system is failing people like me

:20:27.:20:32.

and all the other estimated upwards of 4000 people with MS across

:20:33.:20:35.

Northern Ireland. It's people like Derek that those taking part in the

:20:36.:20:40.

summit want to help. Its aim, to try and encourage politicians to put

:20:41.:20:44.

their politics aside and put people's health first. The expert

:20:45.:20:47.

panel suggesting that could mean radical reform of the system

:20:48.:20:51.

including where and how health is delivered. We don't think it's naive

:20:52.:20:57.

to talk honestly to the population, show the new models will have better

:20:58.:21:02.

benefits, it will be better for you, if we take these decisions. It's

:21:03.:21:08.

true that one has to make that easy for the local politicians and we

:21:09.:21:11.

hope that we can make it easy by proving what the benefits are in

:21:12.:21:17.

this areas. The politicians were presented with 16 principles that

:21:18.:21:20.

they were asked to sign up to in advance. They included the desire to

:21:21.:21:27.

maintain the NHS ethos that health care should be free at the point of

:21:28.:21:32.

delivery and to create a healthier model that would deliver that.

:21:33.:21:36.

Alliance and Sinn Fein argues any change must address health

:21:37.:21:40.

inequalities. Others more cynical. We remain sceptical about the timing

:21:41.:21:45.

of this as it is weeks away from an election and we are worried it will

:21:46.:21:49.

be used by the DUP to deflect attention away from potential bad

:21:50.:21:56.

health headlines that may emerge. If people are informed from grassroots,

:21:57.:21:59.

they know it decisions are being taken and then used trust and that's

:22:00.:22:02.

important going forward will stop these decisions are being taken with

:22:03.:22:07.

their best interests at heart. According to Simon Hamilton this is

:22:08.:22:10.

a long-term plan whether or not he is still imposed after the election.

:22:11.:22:14.

This is more important than any party political point scoring.

:22:15.:22:20.

Irrespective of whether I am in post after election or someone else, this

:22:21.:22:25.

is a long-term problem, not a one-week problem. This is an issue

:22:26.:22:29.

and a challenge we'll have two phase for several assembly terms. The

:22:30.:22:37.

parties have until Fred Berry 26th -- Fabry 26 to accept the

:22:38.:22:42.

principles. If accepted they will be used to design a new model for

:22:43.:22:45.

Northern Ireland which could change how local hospitals operate.

:22:46.:22:47.

The Coroner in the Arlene Arkinson inquest says he needs more time

:22:48.:22:52.

before making a decision about whether the police can

:22:53.:22:54.

He says he may hold more sessions behind closed doors.

:22:55.:22:59.

The 15-year-old girl went missing 22 years ago and no-one has ever been

:23:00.:23:02.

Two prominent dissident Republicans Colin Duffy

:23:03.:23:08.

and Alex McCrory were granted bail today.

:23:09.:23:10.

They face charges of conspiring to murder members of the security

:23:11.:23:13.

forces and have been on remand for two years.

:23:14.:23:18.

A PSNI officer who tried to arrest one of Northern Ireland's most

:23:19.:23:21.

senior judges has been sentenced to three months in prison.

:23:22.:23:24.

Thomas Anthony Carlin attempted to arrest Lord Justice Gillen

:23:25.:23:27.

The cross-party body which runs the Assembly has asked

:23:28.:23:38.

the Westminster expenses regulator to do some more work reviewing

:23:39.:23:41.

the Stormont expenses system in light of recent controversy

:23:42.:23:45.

The Speaker held a meeting of the Assembly Commission

:23:46.:23:50.

Our political correspondent Chris Page is at Stormont.

:23:51.:23:58.

What's the latest? The assembly authorities know that any issue

:23:59.:24:07.

around expenses is bad for politicians in general. They have

:24:08.:24:10.

had to do everything they can to deal with perceptions as a problem.

:24:11.:24:14.

There's been extraordinary public row between the panel which sets

:24:15.:24:19.

expense allowances and the assembly commission which administers the

:24:20.:24:22.

expenses scheme. Essentially they disagree over whether expenses

:24:23.:24:25.

payments made in 2012 should be allowed. Last year, the Westminster

:24:26.:24:33.

regulator, compiled a report about the Stormont system and yesterday

:24:34.:24:36.

that report was leaked. It's a bit should be changing the way the

:24:37.:24:40.

assembly reviews expenses claims which have been initially refused.

:24:41.:24:45.

The assembly commission met today. They're stressing that the reported

:24:46.:24:50.

not identify any major areas of concern but that it did make a small

:24:51.:24:54.

number of recommendations which the assembly is acting on. What's more,

:24:55.:24:58.

the Westminster Bridge related being invited back here to do some more

:24:59.:25:03.

work and update in the light of the stories of the last few days.

:25:04.:25:06.

House prices in Northern Ireland grew by 7% last year,

:25:07.:25:08.

the latest evidence of steady recovery in the local property

:25:09.:25:11.

The average home now costs just over ?118,000.

:25:12.:25:16.

The news has been welcomed by some property experts,

:25:17.:25:19.

while others warn there are still many problems with debt

:25:20.:25:21.

House prices aren't booming but they are starting to blossom. Last year

:25:22.:25:37.

's price rise continues an upward trend which darted two years ago.

:25:38.:25:41.

But in simple terms, what benefits does this bring? Homeowners have

:25:42.:25:49.

confidence that that they may get it by relatively stroked shorts base of

:25:50.:25:52.

time. First-time buyers as well who have been coming back into the

:25:53.:26:01.

marketplace. We had extraordinary marketplace in 2007 and 2008 and we

:26:02.:26:05.

hope they will come back but we'll see that over the coming years and

:26:06.:26:08.

we'll have consistency and that's what we're hoping to achieve. A 7%

:26:09.:26:13.

rise is generally welcome news but there are warnings not to get

:26:14.:26:18.

carried away. House prices in Northern Ireland are worth around

:26:19.:26:23.

53% what they were at the end of 2007 and many people are still

:26:24.:26:26.

struggling with mortgage payments or are trapped in negative equity. We

:26:27.:26:31.

have a lot of people, we see them every day who are struggling with

:26:32.:26:35.

housing debt. We have people who have lost their jobs, health issues,

:26:36.:26:40.

relationship breakdown, it's too simplistic just to see a small

:26:41.:26:47.

increase in house prices as being a salve to our woes. House prices are

:26:48.:26:52.

at the highest in the North Down and Ards area. A home there will cost

:26:53.:26:57.

you more than ?140,000. There's still a long way to go. In 2007,

:26:58.:27:03.

standard house prices have were nine times the average salary. Today,

:27:04.:27:06.

they're just four times what you earn.

:27:07.:27:08.

The IFA confirmed today that the final home warm-up game

:27:09.:27:11.

for Northern Ireland in the run-up to Euro 2016 will be against Belarus

:27:12.:27:15.

Following the game, Northern Ireland will travel to Austria

:27:16.:27:20.

for a week-long training camp before playing their final preparation game

:27:21.:27:24.

against fellow Euro finalists Slovakia on the 4th of June.

:27:25.:27:32.

Plenty of rain that cleared up. Some lovely sunshine around this

:27:33.:27:43.

afternoon but it was a dodgy start this morning with that mix of rain

:27:44.:27:48.

and sleet and snow in places. This was the scene agree to does. Quite a

:27:49.:27:55.

covering there as there was across the mountains. Not so much a low

:27:56.:28:02.

levels. It has been a chilly day and those temperatures now that the

:28:03.:28:05.

skies clearing are falling so quite quickly we will have a widespread

:28:06.:28:09.

frost overlapping and will start to see a few showers pushing in the

:28:10.:28:12.

wars in North and west through the evening. There will be a wintry mix.

:28:13.:28:18.

Temperatures drop to freezing, maybe two or three degrees below. The

:28:19.:28:22.

other problem will be ice. The Met office has a warning in place for

:28:23.:28:26.

the night and into tomorrow morning because there is a risk that there

:28:27.:28:31.

could be minor disruption, slippery and untreated roads and services so

:28:32.:28:35.

something to bear in mind. Once we get into tomorrow, for many, there

:28:36.:28:39.

will be a good deal of try weather, sunshine around as well. Through the

:28:40.:28:45.

morning, it is icy. Showers running their way through, particularly in

:28:46.:28:48.

the north and west and they will still be quite wintry but as we head

:28:49.:28:52.

towards the afternoon increasingly they'll be turned to rain at low

:28:53.:28:56.

levels. Most of the wintry staff in the hills. Not too many making their

:28:57.:29:01.

way across the eastern part of the Southeast, some places avoiding

:29:02.:29:05.

altogether with a fair and of sunshine but chilly with more breeze

:29:06.:29:10.

and hides of 6 degrees. That takes us into tomorrow evening. Again, we

:29:11.:29:15.

start with clear skies will be chilly enough a time, temperatures

:29:16.:29:19.

close to freezing. If anything, they will creep up a degree in the night.

:29:20.:29:24.

A bit more at the breeze, cloud increasing and spells of rain

:29:25.:29:30.

approach from the West. That is the next weather system that moves in

:29:31.:29:34.

for Friday. That has the effect of bringing the cabbage is up but it

:29:35.:29:37.

would feel that way because we'll have cloud and rain for a time. A

:29:38.:29:42.

breeze before drying in the day. Into the weekend, it is if the

:29:43.:29:45.

temperature wise but more rain in the forecast.

:29:46.:29:48.

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:29:49.:29:53.

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