Stormont: Doug Beattie says conference could be missed opportunity

Doug Beattie says an investment conference would be a missed opportunity without a functioning NI Executive

A major investment conference for Northern Ireland this autumn will be a "missed opportunity" if Stormont is still suspended, Doug Beattie has said.

The Ulster Unionist leader made the remarks to a Westminster committee.

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson and Alliance leader Naomi Long have already given evidence to MPs on the impasse.

The power-sharing institutions collapsed last February as part of the DUP's protest over post-Brexit trade rules that apply in NI.

The Westminster government is organising the conference to take place from 12-13 September in Belfast.

Speaking to the NI Affairs Committee on Wednesday, Mr Beattie said he believed it was possible to have Stormont ministers in place ahead of the conference and spoke of his concerns if that does not happen.

"It's an opportunity not just to make inward investment but to get those ties where our homegrown businesses can reach out - but people will come in looking for political stability in order to do that," he said.

"Until we do, society slowly crumbles around our ears."

The conference, which is expected to be attended by the prime minister and other senior government figures, is being delivered by the Department of Business and Trade in partnership with the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) and Invest NI.