Economy

Economy

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Europe

CLAIM: 40% of Unionists are happy about a potential trade border in the Irish Sea.

Rating

INACCURATE

This claim is inaccurate. 15% of unionists in a LucidTalk poll in August 2019 said there should be a “Northern Ireland specific backstop.” 81% of

Economy

CLAIM: Arlene Foster, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said that the party delivered “an extra billion pounds” for Northern Ireland.

Rating

ACCURATE

This claim is accurate. The £1bn is specific to the jurisdiction of Northern Ireland and is in addition to funding pledged as a result of

Economy

CLAIM: Car insurance company Tempcover issued a press release and associated webpage which claimed to “reveal which public transport operators in the UK are doing the best job of getting Britain from A to B”.

Rating

INACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION

None of the public transport companies listed covered Northern Ireland, so it was a Great Britain-only analysis. Tempcover have now corrected this error on their

Economy

CLAIM: The railway service for Derry/Londonderry is substandard to services east of the River Bann, according to campaign group, Into the West Rail Lobby.

Rating

MIXTURE

FactCheckNI interprets “substandard” as “less frequency and access”. Of the six claims made, four are accurate, one is accurate with consideration (there are fewer trains

Economy

CLAIM: Since October 2018, George Best Belfast City Airport has repeated its claim that passengers pass through the security search area in an average of six minutes.

Rating

UNSUBSTANTIATED

This claim is unsubstantiated. As a private company with no regulatory requirement to share detailed information, the airport chooses not to reveal detailed data that

Economy

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Europe

CLAIM: A business transaction happens every six seconds across the border of Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Rating

INACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION

There was a cross-border commercial vehicle journey every 6.74 seconds in 2016. But there are no known data on cross-border business transactions. On 25 June

Economy

CLAIM: Translink spoke about their hope that the Glider would reduce journey times on public transport by 25%.

Rating

ACCURATE WITH CONSIDERATION

The current journey time between Dundonald Park & Ride to Belfast city centre has been reduced by 24% (from 45 minutes to 34 minutes). For

Economy

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Europe

CLAIM: There are approximately 100 lorries per day crossing the border between Northern Ireland and Ireland, and cross-border trade represents 0.5% of UK-EU trade.

Rating

INACCURATE

This claim is inaccurate. There are 5,900 lorry (heavy goods vehicle) crossings daily. Cross-border trade represents 0.97% of UK-EU trade; alternative figures may be due

Economy

CLAIM: Over half of the residents in Fermanagh & Omagh District Council are living in poverty.

Rating

INACCURATE

This claim is inaccurate. 25.1% of people in Fermanagh and Omagh lived in relative and/or absolute poverty, from 2012-15. The claim was corrected by the

Economy

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Europe

CLAIM: 62% of income received by farmers in Northern Ireland comes from the European Union.

Rating

ACCURATE

This claim is accurate. The average payment received from the EU (£27,648) in 2016-17 represented 62.4% of total farm income (£44,305). This ratio fluctuates with

Economy

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Europe

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Explainer

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Peace

EXPLAINER: a history of Ireland-Northern Ireland border checks, both customs and security

At an event in London on 15 January 2019, Arlene Foster (Leader, DUP), stated that during the Troubles there has not been a hard border

Economy

CLAIM: Nearly 1,900 jobs created by Belfast City Council in 6 months.

Rating

INACCURATE

This claim is inaccurate. 420 new jobs created plus 447 job vacancies filled. An unknown number of new jobs have been created from council’s City