TWO major investments planned for Northern Ireland have been shelved because of the unrest after Drumcree and the IRA's return to violence, it, was revealed yesterday.
One of the projects abandoned was a £3 million peaceline scheme, earmarked for west Belfast and promising several hundred jobs.
It is understood a Department of the Environment official wrote to developers in September informing them the plans to develop the four-acre site in Lanark Way and Springfield Road had been called off because of "civil unrest".
Meanwhile, the American firm Quintiles has confirmed that it pulled out of an investment involving 300 jobs after the Docklands bombing in February.
The drug research firm was close to a deal with the Industrial Development Board but after the IRA's return to violence it decided to build its site near Edinburgh in Scotland.
Commenting on the west Belfast site, a spokesman for the department said: "The process is still on hold and the project is being kept under regular review." An IDB spokesman refused to comment on the reports.
