Sinéad McLaughlin says SDLP is not failing to ‘talk up’ Derry by pointing out regional inequalities

The SDLP MLA secured the support of the Assembly for an amendment to a motion tabled by DUP MLA Gary Middleton calling for economic growth.

Mr. Middleton’s motion called ‘on the Minister for the Economy to set ambitious targets to grow the NI economy in this Assembly term, including through creating 5,000 new tech jobs’.

Ms. McLaughlin’s amendment called for ‘ambitious, time-bound and measurable targets to grow and regionally rebalance the NI economy, including through creating 5,000 new tech jobs, with an associated financial stimulus package’.

The Foyle MLA said: “I was pleased to secure the support of the Assembly for a specific focus on regional balance in any targets that are introduced by the Economy Minister. It is not enough to adopt targets to merely grow our economy. The objective must be to rebalance the economy as well.”

Ms McLaughlin emphasised that targets should be introduced outside of jobs, explaining: “The targets adopted by the Minister for the Economy must be time-bound, measurable and sub-regional. I also firmly believe that targets should be introduced on a range of economic metrics, not merely job creation."

In response to DUP MLA Gary Middleton’s remarks earlier on Tuesday, in which he argued Derry needs to ‘talk up our offering and our strengths rather than talking down the place’ during a debate on economic development at Stormont, Ms McLaughlin made her stance known that local politicians must not put their ‘heads in the sand’.

It comes after Mr Middleton said it would mean ‘talking up our offering and our strengths rather than talking down the place that we want to see prosper.’

But the SDLP MLA stated in response on Wednesday she believes: “It is not enough to stick our heads in the sand and pretend all is well or claim that we are somehow failing to ‘talk up’ Derry by pointing out the inequalities in our economy.

"I will always be the first to advocate for our city to investors, but it is the job of government to measure our economic performance and then intervene when the market and policy has failed.”

Ms McLaughlin pointed to specific examples of action, including when she made the case for fiscal stimulus packages to be introduced.

She said: “Targets without actions are virtually useless. That is why I made the case for fiscal stimulus packages to be introduced by the Minister for the Economy, which should be introduced if a target is not met.

"There must be consequences for missing the targets that we set. Finally, I believe that these targets must be set within a legal framework for reporting and addressing regional imbalances.

"That is why I am continuing to call for binding legislation, led by the Department for the Economy. I again raised this directly with the Minister at the Economy Committee and was concerned to hear his belief that he can only legislate for his own Department, despite the precedent of previous legislation that applied duties across government.”