Robinson & McGuinness Chair First Meeting Of Economic Taskforce

In welcoming members to the first meeting of the forum, the First Minister said: "It is apparent that the impact of the economic crisis is widespread across all sectors of society so we needed a group that fully reflected the scale and diversity of the problems.

"We will encourage the members of the group to challenge us in what we are doing but also to bring forward solutions. Our overall objective is to advise on the best strategy to get us through the present economic turmoil."

While it was acknowledged that economic matters were difficult, the First Minister said: "Beyond all of the complex technical conversations we may have about causes of the crisis and solutions, the aim of the Executive and the aim of this group can be stated quite simply - we aim to bring forward measures to protect local people and businesses from the worst effects of this recession."

The deputy First Minister said: "We will not address the problems of the credit crunch simply by hope or blind belief. We have established the forum to generate ideas and offer solutions to create and share prosperity. We are confident it provides all of us with an ideal opportunity to get in step and put a concerted effort into protecting all of our interests.

The deputy First Minister also said: "We have no monopoly on solutions or actions and we must all pull together to redress this economic downturn and position ourselves as a stronger economy."