Northwest councils hold Brexit sumit on Donegal border

Donegal may be just a backdrop in the next Star Wars blockbuster, but this week it will unveil details of a new alliance it hopes will secure its economic survival in the forthcoming Brexit battle.

Donegal County Council has joined forces with Derry City and Strabane District Council to create the North West Regional Development Group, which aims to promote the region’s resources and its potential under one all-inclusive body.

On Tuesday it holds its first Brexit summit in Burt, on the Donegal border.

Seamus Neely, chief executive of Donegal County Council, said both councils were keen to bring stakeholders in the area, North and South, together to plan for the challenges that Brexit will bring and, more importantly, to develop a united response to them.

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The summit will share new “hard data” from the University of Ulster on what the UK’s departure from the EU could mean for the northwest, not least the fact it “faces an internal and an external Brexit issue – cross-Border and off-island flows”.

Derry City and Strabane District Council chief executive John Kelpie said the initiative was just one example of the well-established working relationship that exists between the two councils.

Co-operation

Kelpie says that, while Brexit may have brought this into sharper focus, there is a long history of co-operation where both councils have worked together with great success on mutually beneficial projects in key areas from education to health and the regional economy.

One example is the European Union-funded North West Regional Science Park, a partnership between the North West Cross-Border Group, Catalyst Inc and the Letterkenny Institute of Technology.

Another, launched earlier this year, was the first cross-Border health-related service at Altnagelvin Hospital in Derry to provide people from Donegal with the benefits of state-of-the-art cardiology treatment and access to radiotherapy services.

Following on from these, Kelpie says, the key objectives of new group revolve around three “pillars” that are mutually beneficial for everyone who lives locally and that should be viewed in the context of everyday life in the area – economic growth and investment; physical/environmental development; and social, community cohesion and wellbeing.

“People in the northwest don’t see a Border, they move round freely, sometimes five or six times a day. You only have to look at the number of Donegal-registered cars in Derry city or the northern licence plates in Letterkenny to see how integrated our lives are, and at a local level this is central and vital to everyday life.”

Against the backdrop of Brexit, both he and Neely warn that the “huge interdependency of one side with another” must be recognised at regional, national and international levels.

Interdependency

Kelpie says what this interdependency also means is that, while Brexit is an acknowledged problem, there may also be new opportunities that the northwest can embrace in the process.

“Derry/Londonderry is the fourth big city region on this island, but we are the only city that straddles an international border. That adds another layer of complexity. And in terms of progress, even before the Brexit issue, this is a city region that has not achieved its full potential when you compare it to Dublin, Cork or Belfast, and that is because we have never had a coherent city region.

“Our ambition is to build a city region that is a positive contributor to both sides of the Border and Brexit is now one of the risks that needs to be managed, so we have to be proactive,” Kelpie adds.

Both he and Neely are adamant that the free movement of people and services between Donegal and Derry city/Strabane is crucial to their respective economic futures post-Brexit, as are ongoing issues such as the infrastructure deficit in the northwest.

Both councils participated in a trade mission to Boston, Massachusetts, last month.The mission focused not on promoting one side above the other, or trying to poach potential new FDI projects from either side, but instead on presenting two councils working together for the good of their respective communities. There may be a valuable lesson there for others in the North and potentially the South to heed.

Or as Yoda himself might say: “Feel the force.”