NORTHERN IRELAND:Prof Barnett's report included both economic and political recommendations to improve the Northern economy. But how did politicians react to the report? Northern Editor, DAN KEENANtakes a look...

INDUSTRY MINISTER Arlene Foster played it straight in the immediate aftermath of Prof Richard Barnett's blunt Independent Review of Economic Policy.

Published in September it made dozens of recommendations and among the more political of them was a call for a single Stormont department to deal with the economy.

His critique of the state's support mechanisms for new business and inward investment, published in September, was sufficiently hard-hitting to prompt the Belfast Telegraphto run a headline which roared about the waste of £1 billion. In short, Barnett said the Northern economy needed a significant step change to take account of past failures, to adapt to the global downturn and to get in shape pending the withdrawal of EU support and cuts in British state funding.

It said the main inward investment agency, InvestNI, was in need of radical reform and had failed to improve productivity. But while the Barnett report was direct in its language, some of the briefings prior to publication were even more hard-hitting.

Barnett's evidence in a question and answer session with a committee of Assembly members spelt it out plainly. "We are actually facing a potential crisis unless we change. Can we change before getting into the crisis where we are going to have tighter public expenditure?"

He added: "We are facing that crisis. Can we actually anticipate that and move on because other countries are meeting the crises and then changing?

"You need a committee of the Executive on the economy that actually discusses and formulates policy," he said bluntly.

It was simple yet brutal language. Was there implicit condemnation when he said: "It is a demonstrative effect as much as everything else, it shows that this is important here . . . that this is discussed at the highest level."

Both Foster and her party colleague, first minister Peter Robinson, are in favour of a streamlined Assembly and Executive with fewer ministers. It is possible that Barnett's policy calls could chime in with that aim.

But there have also been no indications yet from the Executive that its three-year Programme for Government and the associated spending plans are up for overhaul, despite being formulated before the sharp economic downturn.

As ministers do, Foster publicly welcomed the report's findings at the time, put it out to six weeks of consultation and promised proposals would be put to the Executive soon after. If her department, like InvestNI, were privately horrified by Barnett, it was well hidden.

That consultation is now over and the Department of Enterprise, Training and Investment (Deti) has yet to make clear what it will do next.

Assembly members from other parties had plenty to say at the time of publication but have said precious little since, adding to the impression that while there might have been some impetus for change then, it may have dissipated.

Sinn Féin has viewed economic issues through the equality lens, focusing on what it sees as the oversight of west Belfast and constituencies west of the Bann in favour of the more developed greater Belfast area.

An Assembly motion was put down by Sinn Féin in October, critical of InvestNI and Foster's department, following the publication of Barnett's report.

However that debate, perhaps a little predictably, illustrated traditional divisions among the Stormont parties. Sinn Féin called for greater emphasis on constituencies it believes are overlooked by government bodies.

The SDLP chimed in with this argument in calling for an overhaul of the main investment agencies and the re-prioritising of the Executive's Programme for Government. It pointed to Northern Ireland's lagging behind other regions in terms of wealth and productivity and called for concerted Executive action to deal with this.

It also accepted that InvestNI has done some commendable work and has singled out the announcement last month, which coincided with the visit to Belfast of US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, of the creation of up to 400 high-end jobs in the financial services sector linked to the New York Stock Exchange.

Unionists, on the other hand, tended towards defence of the status quo and commended InvestNI for "doing a good job in difficult circumstances". Some publicly questioned the motives of those who criticised InvestNI and overall economic strategy.

The minister said many of the points - without specifying which ones - made by Barnett in his independent review were already being worked on by InvestNI and others. And she appealed for a sense of collective and constructive criticism for the remainder of the consultation period.

The vote on the critical Assembly motion was soundly defeated with only half of all 108 Assembly members present for the vote. Foster's consultation period concluded last month. Her office has yet to comment further and it is not known when, or if, she still intends to bring written proposals before the Executive.