Ulster Unionist Deputy Leader Diana Armstrong MLA has said a breakdown of spending on the mothballed Careers Portal Project raises serious questions about how public money was managed, after the Economy Minister confirmed that £700,000 of the £889,000 total went on staff costs.

Diana Armstrong said:

“I asked the Minister to break down where this money went, and the answer is stark. Of the £889,000 spent on the Careers Portal, £700,000 went on staff. That is almost four pounds in every five.

“Development costs across the whole life of the project came to £128,000. In the final year, development spending fell to just £6,000, while staff costs rose to £487,000. In other words, in the year this project all but stopped building anything, it spent nearly half a million pounds on people.

“Total spending also went up rather than down. The Department spent £355,000 in 2024/25 and £534,000 in 2025/26, a rise of 50% in the very year the project ran out of funding and was placed in hibernation.

“The Department even found £6,000 for marketing and branding and £20,000 for strategic support in that final year. Branding was being paid for while the thing being branded was heading for the shelf.

“The Minister has confirmed that eight staff were working on this at peak, and that all have since been redeployed. I make no criticism of them. They were asked to deliver something and the funding was not there. My questions are for those who allowed a project to run into a second year at greater cost while building almost nothing.

“There is also something missing from this answer. The Minister tells me work has been undertaken to keep the project in a state of operational readiness, but she puts no figure on it. Taxpayers are entitled to know what hibernation is costing them this year.

“This was one of four central commitments in the Careers Action Plan the Minister launched alongside the Education Minister in June last year. That plan runs to 2028. Employers are crying out for skills and young people need clear pathways into training and work. Instead we have £889,000 spent, a portal nobody can use, and a Department that still cannot say whether it will ever be finished.”