Kelly – DARD Minister cannot buy off Strabane

SDLP Strabane councillor Patsy Kelly has welcomed the 40 new DARD jobs that Minister O’Neill has promised to the town, but has raised questions regarding her decision to relocate DARD 800 jobs to Ballykelly.

Patsy Kelly said: “Whilst I welcome these forty new DARD Direct jobs to Strabane. There are questions which still remain over the allocation of 800 DARD jobs to Ballykelly. Strabane has suffered from years of underinvestment, we have problems with high unemployment and deprivation. The move of DARD jobs to would be a massive boost to the local economy and spark off regeneration of the town.

“The Minister advised the Assembly in January that her decision was based various socio-economic factors, including deprivation and unemployment levels. This is direct conflict with the evidence presented to her by departmental officials. Strabane outscored all other potential locations, including Ballykelly, on a range of criteria set by her officials for the location of the DARD jobs. The Minister then proceeded to relocate jobs to Ballykelly without presenting the evidence or a business case for this decision. Four months now, we are still waiting on that business case to be presented.

“The Minister cannot simply buy off Strabane with forty jobs, we deserve better than this. The Minister cannot hide away from the evidence that her own department provided to her to relocate the 800 jobs to Strabane. I will continue to press the Minister to present her evidence to deny Strabane these jobs. ”