Derry councillor slams Invest NI review report saying 'it doesn't go far enough'

Councillor Shaun Harkin (People Before Profit) has criticised the Invest NI review report saying it doesn't go far enough.

He said: "People Before Profit participated in the consultation for the Independent Review of Invest NI and welcome much of the criticism levelled at the organisation - but it doesn't go far enough. 

"The investigation finds an organisation riven with infighting and completely lacking in strategic direction or oversight. This underscores why Invest NI isn't fit for purpose and should be abolished. 

"The report describes Invest NI as a dysfunctional organisation with a massively bloated yearly budget of between £140M and £160M over the last decade. 

"Invest NI has essentially operated as an unaccountable corporate welfare slush fund loaded with arrogantly overpaid senior bureaucrats, who appear to have spent more time on international junkets doing deals with corrupt regimes than focusing on Derry and other areas desperate for investment."

He continued: "Over many years Invest NI's efforts in Derry and the North West have been tokenistic and box-checking exercises. Its intentionally non-existent strategy for regional development has ensured economic challenges and discrimination historically facing Derry and the North West remain firmly in place and unaddressed.

"The DfE, under DUP leadership, must bear much of the responsibility for the catastrophic state of Invest NI and its failure to address regional inequalities. 

"However, the failure of Invest NI stems from the failed economic strategy pursued by the entire Stormont Executive over the last two decades. Mainstream Unionism, Nationalism and Alliance all agreed on their own version of a Tory neoliberal economic model centred on driving forward privatisation of public services, lobbying for tax cuts for powerful corporations, Belfast centralisation and pressing down on workers wages. The failure of Invest NI is the failure of this corrupt model. 

"Invest NI and Stormont economic policy has failed the vast majority of people across the North, it has certainly failed Derry. 

"Invest NI can't be reformed. The model it is based on entrenches wealth inequality, corruption and regional discrimination. We need a new development strategy that isn't premised on conducting a war on public services to empower ruthless profiteering. 

"None of the mainstream parties here are prepared to challenge the status quo. The demand for new priorities must come from below - from the trade union movement, from organisations, communities and everyone who has been left behind by Invest NI bosses and the political establishment."