Sir, – Newton Emerson is spot-on with regard to the need to expand Derry’s university campus (“Could Derry be the island’s next big university city?”, Opinion & Analysis, October 19th).
Northern Ireland has far too few graduates and undergraduates, seriously impeding its economic development and potential.
Nowhere is that felt more severely than in Derry, which has the highest unemployment and lowest pay in the North.
Comparable cities in the South have student populations four to five times larger.
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The core problem has to be recognised as partition, which splits Derry from part of its natural hinterland of Donegal.
Indeed, Donegal has similar economic weaknesses in relation to the Irish economy as Derry has to the Northern Irish economy.
What is needed is for the northwest to be recognised as a single and integrated economic region.
That requires cross-Border co-operation in relation to economic development, infrastructure, investment promotion and skills planning and investment.
No investment agency from either jurisdiction has genuinely promoted the northwest as a cross-Border region, serviced by a cross-Border labour market.
Without a joint governmental approach, the northwest will continue to lag. This is as damaging to Donegal as it is to Derry.
Indifference to the northwest by some politicians and parties in Northern Ireland has stymied Derry’s economy for generations.
Movement and improvement, I would suggest, rely on Irish Government leadership. – Yours, etc,
PAUL GOSLING,
Derry.