Invest NI channelled £75m into NW

According to documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, this is what Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness told the Londonderry Chamber of Commerce in autumn 2008.

He also sang the praises of two IT firms and an engineering firm - beneficiaries of Invest NI assistance - located in the city on the advice of officials at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETINI).

A briefing supplied to the Deputy First Minister ahead of the address to the Chamber's annual dinner revealed that over one thousand offers were made to indigenous and foreign companies over the six years.

It was just one of four documents focusing specifically on unemployment and inward investment in the Londonderry area over the past three years, obtained by the Sentinel through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to learn what DETINI had been doing to act on chronic unemployment in the area.

It revealed Invest NI had been trying to encourage job creation by offering millions in state assistance to over one thousand firms in the Londonderry area.

Officials provided Mr McGuinness with details of the economic conditions prevailing at the time and the support provided by the Executive and the Northern Ireland Office in the Derry City Council area over the past several years.

Whilst acknowledging it was "a very challenging period for businesses" and that "key export markets such as the UK and Republic of Ireland were feeling the effects of the slowdown," reducing demand, it was claimed Invest NI would continue to offer assistance in Londonderry.

It pointed out that: "During the six year period 2002-03 to 2007-08, Invest NI made 1,012 offers of support to clients in the Derry City Council area.

"This comprised almost 75m of assistance, which contributed towards a total planned investment of almost 368m. The assistance offered to firms included 17 inward investment projects, offered almost 51m of assistance, which contributed towards projects planning to invest almost 276m, create 2,599 new jobs, and safeguard a further 2,475 existing jobs."

It promised that Invest NI would "continue to offer assistance to businesses in the Derry District Council area through a range of schemes and programmes to help expand their operations."

Assistance

It also noted: "There were 1,478 indigenous business starts offered assistance in the Derry District Council area over the last six years - the majority of which were assisted through the Start a Business Programme.

"In addition, almost 16m was offered to existing locally-owned businesses in the Derry District Council area. This support contributed towards projects that planned to invest just over 51m in the local economy."

The Deputy First Minister was also prompted to mention a number of "good news stories." Under this category Firstsource Solutions Ltd - an IT call centre - and Allstate Northern Ireland Limited - a software developer - employing 550 people and 220 people respectively at that time were mentioned.

Invest NI had offered 5.8million of support to expand the Firstsource operation, creating over 300 jobs. It also set up a third European Centre of Excellence in Northern Ireland - which it said would result in the creation of up to a further 500 new jobs.

Another good news story was Allpipe Engineering. Invest NI said it had helped the company secure major contracts worth 3m with the global fuel giant Esso.

Invest NI assistance in this case was directed at a significant training programme which it said would ensure the business retains the accreditation essential to securing contracts with Esso and other major oil companies.