Potential defence company investment 'disturbing' and 'disgusting' say Derry Councillors
Derry City and Strabane District Council elected members have poured scorn on Invest NI after what some representatives claimed were “disgusting” and “disgraceful” comments around potential defence company investment.
During a performance update delivered during a deputation before the Council’s April Business and Culture Committee meeting, People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin claimed Invest NI had “no moral compass” and accused them of attempting to profit from war by suggesting defence company investment in Derry and Strabane, while independent member Gary Donnelly claimed representatives were “off their trolley”.
During the deputation Invest NI CEO, Kieran Donoghue, told members that Invest NI currently has 192 clients across the the Derry City and Strabane and Causeway Coast and Glens council areas, employing 11,737 people, compared to 1,541 clients and 129,101 employees across Northern Ireland.
Mr Donoghue admitted that number of clients, 95 of which are within Derry and Strabane, “isn’t enough”, and said his staff were in talks with foreign multinational companies and “showcasing the capabilities” of the North West region.
He added that during the 2024/25 year, Invest NI received 236 total investments in the North West, representing £165 million in investment and 309 jobs, compared to 2,205 investments (£580 million, 2,921 jobs) across Northern Ireland.
UUP alderman Derek Hussey asked if Invest NI were pursuing investment from defence companies in the North West, as there was “potential growth” within the industry due to the ongoing US/Israel-Iran war and other conflicts.
Mr Donoghue agreed that defence was a growth opportunity and noted an already-established Invest NI aerospace defence and security team that ‘manage our relationships with existing clients’.
“Given developments in the world and increases in investment in defence and security, that is an opportunity for Northern Ireland and potentially for the North West,” he said.
He noted that there is potential for the manufacture of “dual-use technologies”.
“So there are companies that develop technologies to do with drones or radar or sonar, the software associated with defence and security products and services,” he clarified.
“We have lots of clients with capabilities in that area and dual use means their products and services can be sold in either civilian markets or adapted and applied in a defence and security context, so we are talking to companies in that context.
“UK government recently announced a defence growth deal and Northern Ireland was identified as a node that will participate in that.
“There’s actually a briefing with the Parliamentary Undersecretary in Belfast next week that I’m attending, about how do we, at a Northern Ireland level, capture some of the opportunities in this space. So ‘yes’ is the short answer.”
Councillor Harkin said he was “disturbed” at the idea of defence company investment and said most Derry residents would be ‘shocked’ if they knew it was being considered.
“We have over the last three years witnessed absolute barbarism being carried out by the American government and Israelis in Gaza, they’ve now moved on to Iran, Lebanon, and elsewhere, and the idea that we would be profiting from this and this would be called an area of opportunity is absolutely disgusting, to be quite honest,” he said.
“It demonstrates to me that Invest NI continues to have absolutely no moral compass and it’ll not be accepted that this is what we do to bring jobs into Derry.
“The military industrial complex is creating the problems that we have in the world right now, we should be looking to move away from any dependence on building and supporting the defence industry. I’m actually shocked at what you said.
“A city where people were gunned down by the British Army in broad daylight and we’re going to talk about the defence industry as an area of opportunity?”
SDLP councillor Catherine McDaid said she ‘unequivocally rejects’ potential defence investments as they will ‘inevitably contribute to the war machine that is complicit in genocide’, while councillor Donnelly said it was ‘absolutely disgraceful’.
“Where have you been, have you been under a rock?” Councillor Donnelly asked. “178 school children murdered, a genocide going on in Gaza, and you’ve come to a city that has been affected by British imperialism and telling us that we need to make bombs. Are you off your trolley or what?
“We had Raytheon here and they were kicked out of this city, and if this is the attitude of Invest NI then they should be kicked out of this city too.
“Groups like Palestine Action are taking action against factories that are building these weapons of destruction and we’ve supported them, then you’re coming here and telling us that that’s the answer without any talk of ethical investment?”
In response, Mr Donoghue said: “I was responding to the question ‘do you think that there is an opportunity in the broad defence sector?’ and my response was ‘yes’, for the simple reason that governments across Europe are nervous because of the instability in the world.
“Northern Ireland has a capability to develop some technologies that might have an application in the defence sector. I specifically used the phrase ‘dual use’.
“In response to the question ‘Is there an opportunity?’ there is, there’s only one company in a portfolio of 3,000 clients that has anything to do with pure play defence.
“So to connect my comments with a flood of bomb makers coming into the North West or Derry/ Londonderry, it’s just not true,” Mr Donoghue said.