North West finds a direction
Historic meeting in Sligo
BY ROBBIE MacGABHANN
Sligo's refurbished City Hall was the striking location for a historic meeting this week. The mayors of Derry and Sligo, along with the chairpersons and one vice chair of Cavan, Donegal, Fermanagh, Leitrim, Monaghan, Sligo and Strabane councils met and discussed the formulation of a common strategy to develop the eight North Western counties of Ireland.
Sinn Féin's Sean MacManus, Mayor of Sligo Corporation, was the catalyst for making this cross-border conference on economic development happen and he opened the half-day seminar.
The conference was addressed by Liam Nelis, chief executive of InterTrade Ireland (ITI), Jim Lawlor, president of Sligo Chamber of Commerce, Pat Doherty, chair of the Assembly Enterprise Trade and Investment Committee and Robbie Smyth, a board member of ITI.
MacManus spoke of the inequalities in the pace of economic development and investment in infrastructure in the North West compared to other parts of Ireland, particularly the east coast.
The campaign to secure the benefits of natural gas was just one example highlighted by MacManus of how the North West has been overlooked. He said this was a resource that was, ``derived locally, yet which the government had planned to feed into mainly the Eastern region and to bypass the North West''.
Jim Lawlor spoke of the infrastuctural gaps affecting economic development in the region particularly in the case of telecommunications and power. There was a need for both governments to invest, and invest in a complimentary way. In particular, Lawlor highlighted the fact that the current plans for road investment will do nothing to redress regional imbalances.
The critical energy scenario south of the border was also a topic of Lawlor's address and his graphic account of an under resourced and over extended network does not bode well for future economic development in the region. ``We need a gas fired plant with a new backbone transmission system'' was the stark message from the Chamber of Commerce president.
InterTrade Ireland's CEO, Liam Nelis, outlined the role and work of the trade and business development body set up under the Good Friday Agreement. ``Co-ordination not duplication'' was the theme of Nelis's address. There is he said, 98 cross border programmes currently running.
ITI's research had, according to Nelis, identified huge information gaps between people in business on both sides of the island on potential markets they could exploit.
Nelis gave examples of the kind of work ITI has been facilitating, including the introduction of Harland and Wolff representatives to potential 26-County customers - they are now supplying specialist metal skills for the refurbishment of the Ha'penny Bridge in Dublin.
ITI had also facilitated meetings between Northern and Southern software federations and had brought together for the first time ever the 18 agencies involved in economic development on the island, yes there really are 18.
Sinn Féin's vice president and chair of the Northern Assembly on Enterprise Trade and Investment took up on the points raised by Nelis on the need to co-ordinate a joint strategy.
Doherty highlighted the positive elements flowing from the Good Friday Agreement in terms of pushing the North West onto the Agenda. The North South Ministerial Council, the implementation bodies and the sectoral meetings were all avenues through which the economic needs of the North West could be addressed.
``We need a plan'', said Doherty. ``This means we need a consensus between all the parties, the business community, the trade unions and the community and voluntary groups''.
Recognising the investment and infrastructural crossroads the Irish economy has reached was the theme of Robbie Smyth's address to the conference. Smyth highlighted how the economic success that had created the Celtic Tiger had been created because of good long-term investment decisions by the Dublin Government to pump resources into telecommunications and education. An under utlilised power and road infrastucture had give the economy the capacity to grew at significant speeds during the 1990s.
There was now according to Smyth, ``a new challenge facing the economy. We need to invest in infrastructural resources such as road, rail and power as well as the vital Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). We need also to formulate a strategy that helps bridge the digital divide and offer everyone a role in our new economic strategies. This must an environmentally sustainable strategy and not one that merely serves to enrich the private sector.''
Smyth highlighted recent surveys that showed the extent of the educational deprivation and lack of access to ICT among large sections of the population.
41% of adults had Internet access in the 26 Counties, but only 13% of those not working ever actually used the Internet. ABC1 class members, the most wealthy social grouping, made up 76% of the early adopters of Internet and communication technologies, even though they only constitute 38% of the actual population.
Women working in the family home make up 20% of the population, yet constitute only 2% of the early adopters.
The 1.1 million education poor and the 25% of the adult population with some form of literacy problem showed even more of the nature of the issues that must be taken account of in any new development strategy.
Declining farm numbers and off farm poverty were two other issues touched on by Smyth. Combat Poverty studies had shown, he said, that two thirds of people suffering deprivation in the 26 Counties came from rural areas and recent research in the Six Counties had highlighted concentration of poverty and deprivation not just in Belfast and Derry but hugely also in areas west of the Bann.
The contributions of the four speakers fuelled a lively debate afterwards between the council chairs and mayors. The positive outcome of this was an agreement to meet again within a month and formulate a common approach between all the councils. This would be the beginning of a real plan to tackle the infrastructural deficit in the region.
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