Minister's speech - The Irish - British Connection Conference - 21 February 2025

Note: this publication may not reflect verbatim delivery by Minister Archibald.

Good morning, everyone. You’re all very welcome.

It’s great to see people from across these islands coming together to discuss a model that has so much to contribute to our economy and our society.

I’ve set my Department four key objectives – productivity, Good Jobs, regional balance, and decarbonisation.

Co-operatives have a role to play in all four.

Evidence shows that giving people a stake in the success of a business increases productivity.

Employee voice and representation is itself a key component of a Good Job, as defined by the Carnegie framework.

Worker involvement in decision-making is also an excellent way of delivering other aspects of a Good Job, such as pay and safety.

Local control means jobs are more strongly rooted in the area, therefore promoting regional balance.

And community ownership of energy strengthens the buy-in that is vital to delivering the transition to net-zero.

In the north of Ireland there is strong history of co-operative business models, especially in the agriculture and credit union sectors.

In October 2022 a landmark report on Community Wealth Building was published. It provides the basis for building on that strong foundation.

The report recommended the development of a social enterprise strategy.

My Department has since established a Social Enterprise group to co-design and oversee support for the sector.

Last December we published a 3-year Action Plan.

As part of this we have created 25 social enterprise champions across each of the 11 council areas, Invest NI and Intertrade Ireland.

These champions will promote business models with social objectives, including cooperatives.

Under the action plan, a new leadership training programme is being developed for the social enterprise sector.

This will focus on leadership capacity to support growth through trading of goods and services.

The report recommended action to develop credit unions and I see from the programme that you have a dedicated discussion on this issue.

My Department has established a working group, partnering with the Irish League of Credit Unions, the Ulster Federation of Credit Unions and other key stakeholders such as the Financial Conduct Authority, to promote the Credit Union movement.

The initial focus of this group is to modernise legislation, create new digital platforms and services, and support credit unions to finance green projects.

The Community Wealth Building report also advocated the development of alternative social economy business models, including employee ownership.

To that end my Department and its economic development agency Invest NI is working with Employee Ownership Ireland to promote the Employee Ownership Trust model.

This gives workers more of a say over the running of the business, and more of a share in the distribution of profits.

To finish I’d like to tell you about some of the work we are doing on community energy.

My officials are represented on the Sustainable Energy Communities advisory panel, led by Advice NI.

This project is working with four local communities to help them take control of their energy futures, promoting sustainable and low-carbon energy solutions.

My Department is also working with the Centre for Advanced Sustainable Energy to undertake a Community Decarbonisation Pathfinder Project.

This aims to explore the development of a pathfinder linked with local industrial decarbonisation.

A government and industry working group has been established to lead the delivery of a pathfinder project in and around the village of Derrylin in Fermanagh. 

My Department has also commissioned Queen’s University Belfast to carry out research on community energy, in order to understand the enablers of, and barriers to community energy in the north.

I hope you find that summary useful.

We are proud of the work we are doing in this area, but we can always do more.

Officials from my Department are attending this conference so we can take back lessons to further inform our work.

Thank you to the Society for Co-operative Studies Ireland and the UK Society for Co-operative Studies for organising this conference and for giving me the privilege of welcoming you.

I hope you have a very interesting couple of days.

Thank you.