Disappointment at Varney's findings

Reaction:There was near-unanimous criticism in the North of the Varney findings on corporation taxation plans for Northern Ireland.

Business leaders were most vociferous, but Stormont Finance Minister Peter Robinson offered a more muted response.

"The outcome of the Varney review is disappointing," he said. "All of the main Northern Ireland parties, along with business interests, presented a strong case to Sir David on the need to grant Northern Ireland a dispensation on corporation tax. However, we have always urged caution about the potential outcome of the review."

For Sinn Féin, Mitchel McLaughlin said: "We are disappointed but not surprised at the lack of vision contained in the Varney report. It falls far short of what is required and fails to deliver the kind of economic tools needed. The British Exchequer focus is only on policies that will favour the economy of the island of Britain. Our needs are treated as an afterthought."

SDLP leader and former finance minister Mark Durkan outlined what he said were accepted arguments in favour of corporation tax cuts, adding: "David Varney has contrived all sorts of ways of trying to say no to all those arguments but he has not refuted any of the compelling arguments that are there, partly based on experience in the Republic and based on the analysis of our own economic experts."

Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey was also critical.

"To be able to say we have a lower rate of tax is a very simple message to get across. We believe it would held kick-start the change we need to help us get out of our difficulties and to be really cutting edge after 35 years of torture when we haven't been in the marketplace to the extent that we should have been."

However, his Ulster Unionist colleague Lord Kilclooney, formerly John Taylor, said that to have allowed different rates of tax within the United Kingdom would have damaged the economy of the UK as a whole.