City of Derry Airport running costs to be paid by Stormont, Economy Minister says

City of Derry Airport
-Credit: (Image: Lorcan Doherty Photography)


The cost of running City of Derry Airport will be paid for by Stormont rather than the local council, Economy Minister Conor Murphy has announced.

Mr Murphy said his department is "in the process of taking responsibility" for the funding provided to the airport by Derry City and Strabane Council.

He was addressing MLAs on Tuesday as he launched a plan to boost economic performance of regions outside the Greater Belfast area.

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The airport is owned by Derry City and Strabane council and the cost of keeping it operational adds a burden to ratepayers in the area worth millions.

Mr Murphy announced his intention to take over the funding costs as he updated MLAs on a "new approach to economic development" in Northern Ireland.

"Councils will be asked to establish local economic partnerships, bringing together central government, the business community, universities, colleges, local enterprise agencies and civil society," the Economy Minister said.

"To minimise bureaucracy, existing partnerships can be modified to fulfil that new remit, and councils are free to come together to tackle common concerns and to pool resources and expertise. Partnerships will identify the main barriers to economic development and the priority interventions that will build the region's value proposition."

He continued: "Those priorities will continue to be updated as circumstances change over time. Interventions could involve, for example, support for local clusters; skills programmes tailored to local businesses; preparing more land for business expansion; the development of new start-up and follow-on units; the regeneration of empty buildings for business use; and key infrastructure projects. My Department will recalibrate its programmes and budget to help meet those priorities."

Mr Murphy added: "For example, my Department is in the process of taking responsibility for the funding provided by the local council to City of Derry Airport."

The announcement was not included in a 'sub-regional economic plan' document published by Mr Murphy's department on Tuesday.

Asked to expand on the airport funding announcement by the Foyle MLA Mark Durkan, the Economy Minister said: "On Derry airport, we have been in dialogue and working through the arrangements with the Department for Infrastructure for some time, and we have been talking to the airport and Derry city council. As the Member will know, there has been a bit of ping-pong on the issue for too many years. That particularly came to light during coronavirus, when the Department of Finance ended up supporting the airport."

He continued: "Given the airport's strategic and regional economic presence and what that means for the north-west generally, it is our intention that the Department for the Economy will assume responsibility for it. We need to work through the arrangements for that. That would lift the burden that Derry City and Strabane District Council ratepayers have been carrying on their own, even though the airport serves other council areas and geographical areas."

Mr Murphy added: "Of course, that will, in turn, allow the council to use that money for other purposes to, hopefully, develop economic prosperity in the Derry city council region."

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