400 jobs based on arough estimate

A Department of Health official has explained that the projection of the potential construction sector jobs is based on a ‘broad brush calculation’ only.

The paper can also reveal that the £28.5m refurbishment of Altnagelvin will create 150 jobs at best although this is also only a vague estimate.

Mr Wilson made the announcement earlier this year that the Executive had agreed a substantial investment package in response to the decision by the Republic of Ireland Government’s to “materially revise downwards its contribution towards the A5 road scheme.”

The investment included £492million to upgrade strategically important sections of the A5, A8 and A2 roads. It also provided some £92million of hospital investments in Londonderry, Omagh and Belfast.

But the Sentinel can now reveal that the 400 construction sector jobs projected from the £92m hospital investment was based only on a rough calculation.

In a document obtained through Freedom of Information (FOI) legislation Mr Gilbert Cromie of the Department of Health Social Services and Public Safety (DHSSPS) advised a ‘broad brush approach’ was used to estimate the construction jobs.

Mr Cromie from the DHSSPS Health Estates Investment Group NI stated: “The figures calculated for potential jobs included in the statement made by the Finance Minister on February 14 and repeated in the Health Minister’s press release on the same day were arrived at as part of a broad brush exercise carried out on the total sum of the additional investment namely £92m.

“That broad brush estimate was based on a figure of 16 jobs per million pounds expenditure per year for hospital construction depending on the scale and complexity of the projects.”

Mr Cromie explained that the ‘16 jobs per million’ calculation was routinely used by the Department and informed by talks with groups within the construction industry.

He also stated that such hospital projects are complex and require input from a wide range of small to medium sized enterprises from across all areas of the construction industry, offering opportunities to local contractors, sub-contractors, suppliers and manufacturers.

“Using the additional expenditure figure of £92m being spent over a three year construction period this would equate to 491 jobs (16 jobs x £92m / 3 years).

“We rounded this down to 400 as a good proportion of these jobs will be high value and we did not want to overstate the position,” he stated.

Mr Cromie explained that the “figures were not calculated separately for each project” and there was “no detailed breakdown of the expected jobs for each project.”

However, applying the routine ‘16 jobs per million’ calculation to the £28.5m Altnagelvin figure (16 jobs x £28.5m / 3 years) suggests a maximum of 152 jobs could potentially be created in Londonderry as a result of the refurbishment.