I can’t remember where, unfortunately, but a line I heard once was ‘we used to launch ships, now we launch strategies’.

I have always thought that summed us up well. We are full of good ideas but lack the delivery culture to turn strategic ambition into decisions and delivery.

This is a big problem because businesses thrive on certainty and our ability to attract investment relies on doing what we say.

Investors can live with scrutiny and regulation. They can live with high environmental standards and public challenge, as they should.

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What they struggle with is not knowing when, or even whether, a decision will ever come.

That is where Northern Ireland’s planning system is now working against us. That’s a serious charge but the evidence is increasingly hard to ignore.

The proposed Dalradian mine in Tyrone is the obvious example. It is usually described as a gold mine, but that narrows the debate too quickly.

This is also a proposed major private sector investment in the west of Northern Ireland, with skilled jobs, exports, supply chain opportunities and relevance to the UK’s growing interest in critical minerals.

The problem is not that the project is being scrutinised.........

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