Infrastructure Commission can tie in City Deals with the Executive

That’s the view of Kirsty McManus, the Derry woman tasked by the Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon with advising the department on how a commission might work.

During the summer the Institute for Civil Engineers said an independent advisory body should be established to ensure a more strategic approach is taken to major projects across the island.

In response, Ms. Mallon appointed a new ministerial advisory panel to consider the matter in August.

Ms. McManus, a director at the Institute of Directors, who is originally from Derry, was appointed as its chairperson.

At a briefing of the Stormont Infrastructure Committee Ms. McManus explained that a new Infrastructure Commission could help join up economic development strategy at a local and a regional government level.

“A commission can be a bridge between what is happening in councils with the city/growth deals and what is happening at an Executive level and, again, looking holistically at the opportunities to leverage what is happening at a local level and an Executive level. Certainly, that is what happens in other commissions across the globe,” she said.

The panel, which since its appointment in August, has consulted over ‘100 key infrastructure stakeholders from construction, banking, utilities, investors and infrastructure commissioners’ locally and globally, found there was overwhelming support for an infrastructure commission in the north.

“Many stakeholders acknowledged that there is a bit of a gap and that local government is doing a lot on city deals, but are we strategically leveraging that at a Northern Ireland Executive level?

“That is really important. It was well endorsed by local government that a commission could play an active role,” said Ms. McManus.