To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail the sectors identified as being at risk of automation in the short, medium and long term.

The evidence is clear that innovation and the technological change and automation it drives is overwhelmingly a force for good for economies and for societies. It drives productivity growth, improves overall living standards and drives up working conditions.

The digital revolution is a recent example of how technological advancements and associated automation can improve lives, livelihoods and enable economies to adjust with greater pace to economic shocks including the current pandemic. Many have been able to sustain employment in ways that would not have been possible just a few years ago.

Research commissioned by my Department to assess the impact of automation on the Northern Ireland economy by the Ulster University Economic Policy Centre (UUEPC), undertaken before the pandemic, estimated that up to 98,600 additional jobs could be created in Northern Ireland by 2030.

The UUEPC report contends that automation will drive change in many existing occupations but that it will have a clearly positive impact overall.

According to UUEPC’s forecasts, health & social care and professional services may experience the largest net employment gains in Northern Ireland by 2030. When analysing growth in the context of sector size, the fastest growing sectors are ICT and professional services.

However, the research is also clear about the importance of our people and our economy being well positioned to build on the economic opportunities that automation presents. That requires in particular sustained investment in the skills of our existing and emerging workforce.

The Department is developing a bold and ambitious new vision for the Northern Ireland economy. This will set out how we can best exploit windows of opportunity for core sectors and technologies; ensuring that innovation is diffused across the economy to every industry and locality. The vision will bring a renewed focus on investment in skills so that all our people can drive and benefit from these ambitions.