Totally committed to staff

SIR, — I refer to the letter from Mrs. Annie Kirkpatrick which was published in last week’s Down Recorder.

In her rush to praise the SDLP Mrs. Kirkpatrick deliberately ignored all the efforts I have made to prevent the transfer of health trust administration jobs from Downpatrick to Ballymena.

Your correspondent is fully aware that I met almost all the staff affected by the Shared Services proposals at a meeting in the Downshire Hospital on December 16. Only three MLAs turned up to discuss this vital issue and the SDLP were not represented at that meeting.

I also attended and spoke at the meeting held in the St. Patrick’s Centre on January 19. Mrs. Kirkpatrick writes enthusiastically about the speech made by SDLP councillor Colin McGrath but deliberately ignored the fact that I spoke immediately after him and outlined a proposal to save the Downpatrick jobs. 

This would allow the Shared Services proposals to proceed but with pay-ments being processed at both Ballymena and Downpatrick using modern IT systems.

The reason I did not raise the issue at the Health Committee meeting referred to by Mrs. Kirkpatrick is that I had already made it clear at the previous committee meeting that the proposal to move 33 jobs from Downpatrick was unacceptable. I am currently dealing directly with the Minister regarding this issue and urging him to adopt the two site model.

It is vital that the staff work with all public representatives work to save the 33 jobs. The last thing this campaign needs is for those involved to rush to the press to issue ill-considered outbursts in an attempt to score political points.

I remain totally committed to protecting the Downpatrick jobs despite the extremely unhelpful intervention by your correspondent.

Yours etc.,

JIM WELLS,

MLA.