Politicians should establish a formal mechanism which allows the Donegal Diaspora to invest directly into this region, thus stimulating economic growth. That’s according to Donegal North East TD Joe McHugh, who was speaking after the successful London launch of the Derry Donegal Diaspora project. The launch was held in the Guildhall in the city, and took the form of a networking event, which was attended by key players from the private and public sectors, including economic development agencies.
“Both the event and the project behind it are excellent ideas, which in the first instance allow us to tap into the wider Diaspora. Many key business people who attended the London event would like to support economic growth here, but we need a tangible means – such as a funds management scheme – which would allow them to financially back the region,” added Deputy McHugh.
“There were people there with money to invest, and who would like to invest in busi-nesses here – particularly when the property market and the stock market are less at-tractive. Politicians must now step in and tap into the potential which this project has highlighted,” he said. The TD welcomed plans to extend the Diaspora project to the US and said it could cover places like Dubai, South American and Australia in the future.
Key players from Donegal who attended the London Diaspora event included property developers Pat Doherty and Cormac Byrne, Shaun Reddin of RedRay consulting, and Donal Gallagher of Strange Music, who is involved in the Rory Gallagher Festival in Ballyshannon. Those present also heard from innovation and business expert, Tim Brundle from the University of Ulster who said that the North West region was an ideal landscape for developing an “innovation eco-system.”
“The region has several key advantages – its people, businesses with a hunger for growth and supportive government bodies, “said Mr Brundle. He said research here is however, “largely confined to universities so we need a massive increase in private sector-led research, which must feed quickly and directly into industry, so this knowl
edge can be exploited to its full potential and translated into economic growth and jobs.”
Mr Brundle called for better access to research facilities, financial incentives for col-laborative research between industry and academia, and education of senior manage-ment in industry on the rapid insertion and exploitation of research and innovation.
Donegal-born Sir Roy McNulty, chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, and of the Derry urban regeneration company, ILEX told the audience about the ambitious plans and the vision ILEX has for Derry, and said they were also looking across the border at the wider region, working with partners such as Donegal County Council.
Diaspora project co-ordinator Ms Aeidín McCarter described the London event as a great success. “People could relate immediately to the aims of this project, and under-stood that they had skills, experiences and contacts of value to this region. They want to play their part and have signed up to our network. It was important for us to get a good response from London, as so many of our emigrants are based in England,” she added.
The Diaspora project is part of a wider economic programme (Ireland North West - Making Business Happen) involving Derry and Donegal councils and development agencies, which seeks to create the right conditions to foster growth and co-operation across the border and harness the potential to work and trade across two jurisdictions. The chairperson of the INTERREG IIIA Partnership, Christina Mullan, says they are delighted to fund a project which unites agencies across the border, and which “reaches out in such a concrete way to draw our Diaspora into the north west econ-omy”.
For information contact:
Trish Hegarty, Inis Communications +353 86 1740057 or
Aeidín McCarter, Donegal County Council +353 87 774 8502