Northern Ireland business people staged a motorcade protest in Belfast yesterday with cross-party support against the phased introduction of industrial rates that, it is claimed, could cost the North 30,000 jobs.

The Northern Ireland Office announced three years ago that it was phasing out industrial derating, a process that began last year with business people then paying 15 per cent of the projected bill which, once fully phased in, would yield about £80 million (€115 million) for the British exchequer. This year the bill will be 25 per cent of the full rate.

While such ratepayers in England, Scotland and Wales have been paying the full 100 per cent bill, the Northern Ireland Manufacturing Focus Group, which organised yesterday's event, argued the North should be a special case.

Spokesman Basil McCrea called for the rate to be capped at 25 per cent, warning the full rate could destroy the North's manufacturing sector. "This would put 30,000 jobs at risk," he said.

Mr McCrea rejected the argument that the North should be treated no differently than Britain, stating that business people in Northern Ireland faced greater overheads than their counterparts in Britain and the Republic, and because they operated from a smaller population base they had to export to be viable, which was expensive.

They required this advantage to help compete with the lower corporation tax paid by industrialists in the Republic, he added.

He estimated ratepayers were paying an average of £25,000 with the current 25 per cent rate.