‘Just one job created’ - MLA

She was responding to a claim by SDLP MLA Colum Eastwood that just 0.2 per cent of all state-supported jobs created by first time investors in the province in 2011/12 were in Londonderry.

Mrs Foster confirmed that the company responsible for creating the job, One Stop Data Ltd., also promoted a further 24 jobs through the state Jobs Fund.

“The company that promoted both these 24 jobs and the one job referred to in this question was One Stop Data Ltd.,” she stated.

“In addition to these 25 jobs, there were 324 jobs promoted by both local businesses and follow-on projects by externally owned businesses in the constituency during the year,” she added.

The Minister also repeated her claims that Invest NI promotes more inward investment in Londonderry than in other places.

She stated: “Furthermore, Invest NI promoted more inward investment jobs per head of population in Foyle than the Northern Ireland average.”

Her claim follows a report in the Sentinel during the spring that Londonderry benefited from more state-assisted jobs than all but two other constituencies in Northern Ireland over the past five years.

But the Minister warned that despite chronic unemployment levels in Londonderry it was not the job of Invest NI to direct company’s to a particular areas.

“Invest NI has limited scope for ‘directing’ investment to specific Parliamentary Constituency Areas,” she explained.

“Although it may be able to influence the location decisions of some inward-investment projects, assistance patterns are demand-led by businesses wishing to improve their competitiveness and gain a larger share of international markets.

“In the case of established businesses, reinvestment patterns will usually be determined by the existing location of the business.

“It should also be noted that areas such as Parliamentary Constituency Areas (PCAs) are not selfcontained labour markets. A project assisted in a particular location has the potential to create benefits across a much wider area.

“Northern Ireland is a relatively small place and evidence indicates that many investments draw their workforce from areas beyond constituency area boundaries,” she stated.