Northern Ireland’s new Secretary of State Hilary Benn has said Labour will honour their predecessor’s commitment to invest over £100m towards Derry & Strabane’s City Deal, during a visit to the city on Thursday. Speaking to the media alongside Mayor Lilian Seenoi Barr at Harbour House, Mr Benn said it was a “pleasure to be back”, and began by praising John & Pat Hume and the foundation set up to carry their legacy into the future.
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00:00It's a great pleasure to be back here. The first time in my new capacity as the Secretary
00:20of State for Northern Ireland. We have been meeting with the Hume Foundation this morning
00:27to hear about the work they're undertaking and of course reflecting on the extraordinary
00:31life of John and Pat Hume and I've just been able to see, well the three Peace Prizes that
00:37he won including the Nobel Peace Prize. A testament to an extraordinary, a testament
00:49to an extraordinary man and woman because John and Pat Hume were a team and everything
00:57that they achieved and the Hume Foundation is keen not just to tell the story of what
01:05they did and their lives but to use it as a foundation to take forward the process of
01:11reconciliation and peace building here in Northern Ireland, in Derry, London, Derry
01:16and around the world. This is an exciting time for the city with the City Deal. I know
01:24it's taking a little bit of time to go through the process but it's £250 million of which
01:30£105 million the UK Government is contributing, plans for Strabantown Centre, for the expansion
01:38of the University, the Medical Centre and other regeneration projects around Derry,
01:45London, Derry and I look forward to returning on a future occasion to see how that progresses
01:52and succeeds. Absolutely and it is really fitting to have the Secretary of State in
01:57our city and firstly to start with the John Hume Foundation because John is very well
02:03known for his passion for the city and he was more focused not just on uniting the community
02:09but also on economic growth of our city and district and this is why we are very hopeful
02:15having the Labour Government in place to ensure that all the plans that have been put in place
02:21since John Hume was the MP and when he was also the leader here that he wanted to see
02:26Derry thrive economically not just with uniting people. So I'm very, very excited to see what
02:33we can achieve together in delivering our City Deal, delivering our expansion for Australia
02:38University and ensuring that the focus is across the whole city and district. So I'm
02:43very, very excited about working with you and thank you for confirming that the UK Government
02:50is going to give us a good package for our City Deal. I'm really looking forward to working
02:55with you on that and many other programmes that we have in place. Thank you Mayor. We'll take one
03:01question to start with Chelsea. Secretary of State, you touched there about all the study days and the
03:07work that's being done but we've heard and you probably you will hear it going forward on the
03:12benches or the MPs from here calling for to make sure that there is a regional balance. You touched
03:17on some of the measures but are you committed to ensuring that this region is profitable and
03:23is looked at the same way as other regions across Northern Ireland? Well in the end the success of
03:29any place including this region is firstly down to the efforts that people locally make for
03:36themselves. Secondly when one thinks about inward investment, the last time I was here I went to
03:42visit Seagate which is the most extraordinary place. Now that investment came in here, it employs a lot
03:49of people, it's cutting-edge technology and when you talk to investors wherever they're thinking of
03:55investing in Northern Ireland for them the number one essential requirement is political stability
04:02and that's why I said in answer to your questions about what we do, Northern Ireland does for itself
04:08with the institutions back up and running there is now stability is returning. It's absolutely
04:14essential that those institutions endure because investors hate more than anything else instability
04:21so there's a great deal that Northern Ireland can do to help itself in that regard. What an
04:27opportunity because with Northern Ireland's access to the European market as well as to the
04:32British market what a fantastic place to come and invest in and I am looking forward to seeing more
04:38investment coming into all of Northern Ireland including here in your region because you've got
04:43so much to offer. I also visited I think it's called Catalyst, you're nodding, that's good
04:51I've remembered it correctly and that was quite a place on my last visit seeing
04:58innovative pioneering companies including and remembering one that was working on a contract
05:05to design a factory making blinds in the United States of America. I said how did you come to
05:13get that contract and the answer was because we're innovative we can do things that other people
05:18who bid for it couldn't do. What an example of innovation here, brilliant. Thank you.
05:26You've mentioned the city being there, it probably won't be even scratch the surface when it comes to
05:33investment that's needed in there so I'm wondering what is the Labour government going to do in
05:37addition to that to make sure this region's where we'll go? Well I think I would say it's what's
05:43known in the trade as a start and a start is a really good place to begin so the money is there
05:51it's committed we're working through the memorandums of understanding or whatever they're called
05:56and let's see this unleashed the potential because of course public investment can help bring in
06:02private investment and in the end the whole community benefits from this.
06:07Look the economic circumstances are very very challenging for the new government because as the
06:13Chancellor Rachel Reeves has made clear having if you like lifted the bonnet and peered at the
06:20state of economy the state of the public finances is even worse than we thought before we gained
06:26office but what is the route to prosperity and success in the future it is economic growth and
06:33if you look at the King's Speech yesterday absolutely a centre of what the government is doing
06:40efforts to get more economic growth because from that will come resources to invest in things that
06:47people would like to see invested in and to help support and sustain our public services there's a
06:53very big challenge of course here in Northern Ireland but I would also say that making best use
06:59of the money that is currently there is a big responsibility for the executive because when I
07:05reflect on the fact that funding per head compared to my constituents in Leeds for example is higher
07:12in Northern Ireland than it is more and yet take the health service the waiting list of the worst
07:19in the whole of the United Kingdom and I think the public has a perfectly a valid reason for
07:25saying to politicians why is that more funding per head a worse public services and that is about
07:30choices that government makes yeah but you're mentioning that but there will be a clear east
07:35west divide when it comes to Northern Ireland so should the Labour government be focusing on
07:40investing in regions like this which are basically seen as an untapped reservoir?
07:45Well as I said in answer to the earlier question these are
07:52Derry, Londonderry make the most of its potential I mean you might want to talk
07:55Mayor about some of the work in the projects and the opportunities that lie ahead with the funding
08:01from the city deal. Yeah I think what we have to appreciate and really welcome is the political
08:06intent to invest here in our city and district and I know that our Chief Executive Officer
08:12and the Director of Business and Culture met with the Secretary of State recently we have a
08:17date in the diary we are working through good programs that are going to be put in place the
08:22delivery of our city deals is a priority for our council here and I know the Secretary of State
08:29has had the message very clearly that we will be knocking his door every single day until that is
08:36delivered and everyone who had my opening speech during my inauguration my main theme was growth
08:43and working with common good and what this government has done is shows that they are very
08:48positive in delivering change and we want them to account for that.