SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood has said that the Executive’s Programme for Government, published today, includes a shocking row back on the established commitment that Derry will have a minimum of 10,000 student places.
The document published by Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill and DUP deputy First Minister Emma Pengelly contains a pledge to ‘expand the Magee Campus so that it can accommodate up to 10,000 students’.
The Foyle MP said that reframing the commitment, which he negotiated with the British Government, as a maximum rather than a minimum places an unacceptable cap on ambitions for the city.
Said Mr Eastwood: “It is genuinely outrageous that Ministers have actively and blatantly rowed back on the clear commitment to achieving a minimum of 10,000 student places in Derry.
“The overdue and overhyped Programme for Government instead seeks to ‘accommodate up to 10,000 students’ – a commitment so devoid of ambition that the paltry number of student places we have right now could be considered to have met it.
“They have no mandate to downgrade the promise to people in Derry.
“Setting 10,000 students as a minimum requirement was about putting down a marker and creating a clear ambition for Derry as a hub for medical sciences, new skills and well paid jobs.
“Watering down the commitment that I secured from the British Government is a terrible political decision by an Executive that has deprioritised Derry.
“This document is called ‘Doing what matters most’ – which says it all about how little Derry matters to them.
“We need political leaders to champion this city and the potential we have – that’s why I’ll continue to make the case for sustained investment and 10,000 student places here at an absolute minimum to allow us to achieve our potential.”
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