Magee taskforce among 41 actions outlined in new DfE three year forward look and 2024/25 Business Plan

Economy Minister Conor Murphy launched DfE’s ‘Delivering the Economic Vision’ at the latest Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry Public Affairs Forum on Monday.

The plan includes a commitment to ‘work towards expanding the campus at Magee to 10,000 students as set out within New Decade New Approach, by working with the Magee Taskforce, and partners, to publish and begin to deliver on an action plan’.

The target date for this action is January 2025, the report stipulates.

The plan says achieving regional balance is now one of DfE’s four main objectives alongside delivering good jobs, raising productivity and decarbonisation.

"The North faces a number of economic challenges at a regional level with issues such as employment, productivity, income and economic inactivity, all areas where we perform poorly compared to our nearest neighbours.

"When viewed at the sub-regional level however, these disparities can be even more pronounced, with areas such as the North West lagging significantly behind the average on a number of key economic indicators – for example, the employment rate (including students) in Derry City & Strabane in 2022 was 10 percentage points lower than in Mid Ulster [the report outlines how the employment rate in Derry & Strabane is 73.7% compared with Mid Ulster (83.7%)].

"Furthermore, the output per job worked was c.£50k in Derry City & Strabane in 2022 compared to c.£66k in Belfast,” the report states.

£385m cost of expanding Magee College to 7,500 includes funding already committed