BELFAST BRIEFING:THERE IS a mounting sense of frustration in certain quarters about how the North's Executive is responding to the growing economic crisis unfolding across Northern Ireland.

There are issues about whether the Northern Ireland Executive has an overall plan in place to deal with what effect the economic downturn is having locally, or whether individual Ministers and departments are simply writing their own script as they go along.

Take, for example, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment, the department charged with responsibility for economic policy development. It states that its department goal is “to grow a dynamic, innovative economy”.

So what is the department and in particular its Minister, Arlene Foster, doing to achieve this goal during a time of global economic downturn?

To give the department its due, it has organised a broad range of business support and credit crunch seminars, which were generally well received. Through its various agencies, such as Invest NI, it has also launched several schemes to boost entrepreneurship and help established businesses to expand.

Neither Foster nor her department have been sitting idly by while the unemployment rate soars and the number of firms going out of business accelerates.

But then, neither could they ever be accused of coming up with any stunningly innovative or dynamic solutions to the current problems facing Northern Ireland.

Foster, to her credit, has sought some advice from people who are not paid-up civil servants – chiefly the Economic Development Forum – on how best to deal with the rising tide of economic woe.

The forum, which has been in operation for 10 years, is made up of representatives from a wide spectrum of groups, from industry to trade unions. It recently came up with a kind of an action plan which recommended a number of “wide-ranging proposals”, such as bringing forward infrastructure projects which would help stimulate regeneration.

Foster pledged that the forum’s proposals – not all of which have been made public – would be brought to the attention of the North’s First Minister and Deputy First Minister and that she would “consider the recommendations further”.

In the meantime, Peter Robinson and Martin McGuinness have decided to set up a special economic taskforce, which is made up of 29 representatives from various cross-community, industry and voluntary sectors.

So what is the message that Robinson and McGuinness are sending to Foster and Northern Ireland as a whole? Is it that they just do not like her taskforce and simply want one of their own, or do they not think the current Economy Minister is capable of helping to “grow a dynamic, innovative economy”?

Incidentally, the other issue the political leaders may not have considered is just how difficult it may be to get 29 people to agree to an agenda, never mind a strategy, to save what’s left of the Northern Ireland economy.

It would appear there is a real danger here that too many cooks – in the guise of Ministers and representatives – could be in danger of making the economic stew the North finds itself in even more unpalatable.

There are also a growing number of business people who fear that the approach the Executive is taking to the credit crisis and the downturn reflects a worrying level of immaturity.

Politicians used to running for help to Britain, Ireland and the US now find that their allies are in dire straits and struggling to find a way out of their own troubles.

Granted, this has not stopped Robinson and McGuinness trying to buy Northern Ireland more financial help by promoting its “special case” status, as recent trips highlight. In the last month alone, they have been to the US and Brussels yet again looking for financial support both from industry and governments.

However, as the business community in the North knows only too well, there comes a time when you have to be able to stand on your own two feet.

Northern Ireland and its politicians have come an admirably long way in a relatively short time and everyone is to be congratulated for that, but it is facing a fresh crisis and this time it is not political, it is economic.

It is now time for the political leaders to embrace the rules of business when it comes to tackling the economic crisis.

No one knows the strengths and the weaknesses of Northern Ireland better than the people of the North themselves. Politicians, business leaders and the wider community need to work together – regardless of personal or political allegiances – to try and create a new economic future.

Hundreds of people are losing their jobs each week, thousands more are under threat and politicians must step up and play their part in putting together the game plan to tackle the problems.

Political leaders in Northern Ireland cannot solve the global economic crisis and no one expects them to be able to, but they can make a difference at home – where it counts.