The new chairman of the CBI in Northern Ireland has called for a competitive infrastructure to encourage better business practice. Mr Mark Ennis, who is also the chief executive of the plastics and packaging group, Boxmore International, was speaking on his first day as head of the business employers' organisation.

Mr Ennis also highlighted the high cost of energy in Northern Ireland and the problems which were being created by what he said was an "extensive bureaucracy".

He referred to a recent report which suggested that small businesses in the UK spend 600 million working hours a year dealing with bureaucracy, and promised to do what he could to reduce the amount of red tape such companies were forced to negotiate.