Mr. John Kelpie:

I thank the Chairman and other members for having us here today. I am the chief executive of Derry City and Strabane District Council. As Mr. Neely said, we are here as a collective group. Derry is very much the major urban centre at the core of that region. Derry is the fourth largest city region on the island of Ireland, with a catchment population for a travel-to-work area of approximately 400,000. It is the only city region on these islands that straddles an international border. In fact, it is the only city region in the whole of Europe that straddles a border of that nature.

In recent years, there has been fantastic progress in the north-west. Some recent economic announcements have been pleasing in terms of new job creation opportunities. In addition, there have been physical and environmental improvements in our natural and built heritage. There has been an expansion in our third-level colleges. We have a high percentage of young people in the council's area, of which a large number attend third and higher-level educational colleges. Over the past five to ten years, therefore, there has been much of positive progress. That said, the fundamental challenges of the region stubbornly remain and have been hard to shift. There has been a significant period of under-investment which is a legacy. Our connectivity issues remain extremely challenging, including the issue of peripherality. All of that has led to high levels of social deprivation and continued, stubbornly high unemployment rates.

There are many challenges but, as Mr. Neely said, there is a new era of opportunity. On both sides of the Border, we have undergone local government reform. This provides councils with welcome new powers to drive forward their regions and economies. The north-west region has seen a specific focus through the North-South Ministerial Council, this joint committee and the North-West Gateway Initiative. The new strategic north-west partnership, involving councils and both Governments, is a unique model of cross-jurisdictional local and central government collaboration on the island.

There is indeed a window of opportunity to transform the region and change those hard-to-shift statistics into what we aspire to, which is that the fourth-largest city region reaches its full potential in the same manner as Dublin, Belfast and Cork and eventually begins to become a net contributor to the economy on both sides of the island.

As councils, we have set off on a highly ambitious plan, and colleague councils around the table have similar strategic plans. In the city of Derry, that will involve an expansion of the university and a significant focus on the growing of skills and the attraction of new FDI, the building of our SME base and capitalising on our greatest asset, namely, our talent and young people. We in Derry city have developed a strategic plan to develop that area. The outcome of that plan will see significant job growth, approximately £500 million added to the GVA of Northern Ireland and an additional tax take of £100 million per annum for the economy.

The unemployment rate will fall to below the Northern Ireland average for the first time in history. These plans are predicated on increased and improved connectivity, in particular from the point of view of this committee, to Dublin Port, the city of Dublin as a centre of economic activity and, very importantly for us, to Dublin Airport. Most of our FDI companies have North American bases and cite connectivity to Dublin Airport as one of the primary issues that concerns them in respect of where they locate on the island.

Our plan has been carefully worked through over the past number of months. Consultation has taken place across our communities. All of our statutory agencies, the Government and statutory partners have bought into the process. We were very clear about our ambition for the future, but that ambition hinges on connectivity to the city of Dublin, its ports and airports. We require rapid and reliable safe conductivity, and some of my colleagues will discuss those important issues.

To sum up, it is a key economic driver for us and a paramount and priority project, and we call on the committee to support us in terms of ensuring that those sections of the A5 that have been designed rapidly start on site and those sections of the N2 that remain to be designed and scoped as soon as possible.