THE battle for Westminster's West Belfast seat moved on to the economic battlefield yesterday as sitting SDLP MP, Dr Joe Hendron, launched a full-scale attack on his major opponent, the Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams.
Sinn Fein's desire to scrap the North and West Belfast Economic Working group came in for sharp criticism from Dr Hendron, who described it as "reckless and indicative of Sinn Fein's disastrous record on economic development in West Belfast".
"The North and West Belfast Economic Group is actually one of West Belfast's true success stories," said Dr Hendron. "Since its establishment in 1992, it has successfully built a partnership between the communities of the Falls and Shankill and between government and the voluntary sector. It is acknowledged that the group has been responsible for bringing 2,900 jobs to West Belfast in the last 18 months.
"Sinn Fein's approach to economic development is fundamentally flawed and betrays the excellent work which has been done since 1992. It is also a pathetic attempt to paper over their own disastrous economic record in West Belfast."
At the launch of Sinn Fein's economic strategy for West Belfast, Mr Adams said the British government was covering for its own economic failures by blaming the lack of funding on the resumption of the IRA campaign.
Mr Adams said: "In the current conflict situation the British government are covering their own policies by blaming it on the resumption of the IRA campaign, and there is a suggestion that it is being used to `punish the people'."
Mr Adams accused the government of making decisions on cuts in health and education either before or during the IRA ceasefire.
"The people of this area have a right to equality, have a right to decent jobs, have a right to a future. There's money being pumped into other parts of the city which we don't object to. We simply draw attention to the money that is being pumped into east Belfast, but it needs to be spread throughout all parts of the city. West Belfast is an area of social need and the government has a policy called targeting social need."
He called on the government to implement a more sustainable - more coherent, integrated strategy to reverse the social deprevation.
Mr Adams called for an investment of £110 million, combined with an integrated economic strategy based on partnership and community-led, which would seed substantial regeneration in West Belfast and bring up to 4,000 badly-needed jobs.
He said gains made by the Department of Economic Development had been offset by a series of "economic body blows".
"These include the refusal to green-light the University of Ulster's plan for Springvale, the rundown of the Royal Victoria Hospital, the introduction of the punitive axeing of hundreds of Action for Community Employment posts, an assault on the entire training infrastructure, and cuts in education, health care and - Making Belfast Work budgets."
Mr Adams introduced a seven-point plan, which includes the construction of advance factories to encourage investment and the creation of up to 500 jobs by investing money in the arts, culture, heritage and tourism.