The headline of the BelTel screams injustice and inequality but illustrates poor understanding of how the economy works.
The scandal is that three organisations (two universities and one ALB (arms-length body) receive a third of all grant aid from Invest Northern Ireland.
NI Screen
One of the peculiarities of the Northern Ireland system is that Northern Ireland Screen, the film and television development agency in Northern Ireland, is funded via Invest Northern Ireland. They are given a chunk of cash each year which they use to pay their staff, maintain their offices (which are not expansive or salubrious), organise trade missions and provide development and production support to aspiring film makers and existing developments and productions – including Game of Thrones, City of Ember, Your Highness, Grabbers, The Keith Lemon Movie and a host of others. NI Screen doesn’t have a membership structure and while it’s true they get extra cash from the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure, the bulk of their economic development work is funded via Invest Northern Ireland. So, if they didn’t get this money then these productions might not have happened (and I’m only upset I didn’t get to meet Natalie Portman, Lena Headey or Emilia Clarke). So, come on, Margaret Canning, wind your neck in about that cash. They don’t actually get the money for themselves.
The Universities
This isn’t the first time the BelTel has levelled an eye at the Universities and their funding and economic affairs and with the same ham-fisted approach. Universities do receive a chunk of cash from the Department of Employment and Learning but that’s pretty much to offset the restricted fees structure in place. The money from Invest Northern Ireland is slightly different. It’s made up of hundreds of Innovation Vouchers and Knowledge Transfer Partnerships as well as (probably) a bit of business support for University spin-outs who are attempting to create jobs and prosperity. It just looks like a big number because it’s over three years but it’s too easy to look at the universities as individual entities and not as a knowledge provider for the entire Northern Ireland economy.
Areas outside of Belfast
Prior to 2011, there was a facilitation to help companies set up outside of Belfast but this was cut for a number of reasons. I think a big reason was to do with the businesses themselves. Setting up in the middle of nowhere is not what most companies want. They want to be where the critical mass of people are, where the best facilities are, where there is good transport, decent infrastructure and some sort of social hub. Belfast has 50% of the creative sector housed within it’s satrapy and this isn’t by design. This is because companies want to be there. The population of greater Belfast is a third of the entire population of Northern Ireland. Two thirds are located in the east of the province. This is why Belfast scores nearly twice as much investment from Invest Northern Ireland as the next nearest region. It’s where the companies are. Like it or not, Invest Northern Ireland doesn’t just hand money out to anyone who walks in the door (well….) but you need to apply, show you have match funding, and meet other scrutiny that we, the people, demand they do. Incredibly rural areas are not going to get the same level of investment and a single company located in the region with a large workforce can easily account for all of the Invest Northern Ireland spend for the whole region.
The data presented here is meaningless.
Of course, the Belfast Telegraph are just reading the output from Detail Data (a NICVA project) and it’s a shame there wasn’t any deep analysis of the data performed. It’s easy to report bias and headlines without applying appropriate context.
Never let good reasons get in the way of a big headline…
As I recall, the Detail stuck to the facts without going into opinions?
Looks to me like they presented data and not an iota of information.
No need to segue into opinion. They completely avoided the facts.