§ Mr. Peter Robinsonasked the Prime Minister how the performance of the Northern Ireland Department of Commerce, the Northern Ireland Development Agency and the Local Enterprise Development Unit compares with the Scottish and Welsh Development Agencies in (a) attracting foreign investment, (b) attracting local investment and (c) the promotion of jobs.
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§ The Prime MinisterIt is not possible to make comparisons in the precise form suggested as the responsibilities of the individual industrial development bodies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are not the same.
The most appropriate means of measuring industrial development performance in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is by reference to job promotion in projects attracting selective financial assistance, the provision of which is, in the main, the responsibility of Government Departments in each case rather than the development agencies. From the beginning of 1977 to the end of October 1980 the number of jobs promoted in employment-creating projects attracting selective financial assistance in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales were 26,500, 44,000 and 28,600 respectively. In Northern Ireland some 7,400 of these jobs were in projects undertaken by companies from Great Britain or overseas, which had not previously invested in Northern Ireland; while in Scotland and Wales, some 5,200 and 3,600 jobs respectively were associated with new projects by companies from overseas.