O’Neill believes £290m City Deal combined with Magee Taskforce progress can be ‘game-changer’ for Derry

Transcript

00:00It was a great day last Wednesday when we had the First Minister, Deputy First Minister

00:04and our Finance Minister in the city to sign off the growth deal. Could I ask the

00:08First Minister, would you agree that the growth deal signed off last week for

00:12Derry and Straban will be an economic game-changer for the region?

00:16Yes, I thought it was a fantastic event last week to be able to be

00:22there to be part of the signing of the growth deal, particularly given the

00:26negative publicity around the growth deals in the days previous to that but

00:28I was delighted and didn't want the event to be overshadowed by the

00:31negativity because obviously we've got work to do in terms of fighting for the

00:35Mid-South West and the Causeway Coast and Glens deals which we collectively

00:39are determined to do but no doubt the £290 million investment for the

00:44Derry City and Straban growth deal marks just another huge milestone for the

00:48North West. It's going to be transformative in terms of job creation,

00:51infrastructure, education, tourism projects, investment in our communities

00:55and I believe that the potential of every city, town and community right

01:00across the area that it covers is going to create just such huge opportunities

01:04for the North West in general and I think when you combine it with the work

01:08that's been done around the Magee taskforce, when you combine it with the

01:10work that's been done around regional balance I think you can see that this is

01:14a game-changer in terms of the collective efforts to ensure that

01:17there's proper regional balance in the North West.