ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT FORUM: INFRASTRUCTURE SUB-GROUP
Meeting held on 10 February 2006 at 2.30pm
Present: Jim
McCusker (Chairman)
Richard
Sterling
Shane
Murphy
Doreen
Brown
1.
Apologies
1.1.
Apologies were received from Michael Brennan,
John Gilliland and Peter McNaney.
Shane Murphy was attending in place of Michael Brennan.
2.
Minutes
and Matters Arising
2.1.
The minutes of the meeting held on 13 January
were agreed, subject to one addition.
2.2.
The draft Regional Economic Strategy had not yet
been issued, although it was still DFP’s intention to circulate it for
discussion at the EDF meeting on 7 March.
2.3.
It was not yet known when
Sir Rod Eddington’s report would be produced.
3.
SIB
– Assessment of private and public sector capacity
3.1.
The PWC report on the private sector capacity to
cope with the Investment Strategy had just been published. Because of the timing of the report’s release
– on the day of the sub-group’s meeting – the group had not yet had an
opportunity to study it, but an initial reading confirmed concerns about a
skills gap and the capacity of local firms to play a major role in ISNI. This would be reported to EDF.
3.2.
The review of public sector capacity was still
underway, and was not likely to be completed before April. The sub-group hoped that this study would be
brought to a conclusion as soon as possible in order to dovetail with the
private sector study to carry ISNI forward.
4.
Planning
Issues
4.1.
The points relevant to the Planning Service which
the sub-group had identified, and the three recommendations from its last
report, would be emailed to the EDF Secretariat. Views would be sought from all EDF members,
and the issues would be considered at EDF’s June meeting.
5.
Prioritisation
of Actions
5.1.
The sub-group considered the remaining points in
its last report to EDF in order to establish relative priorities.
5.2. It was agreed that the actions could be grouped as Higher or Lower priorities as follows:-
| Higher: |
two recommendations on
Broadband; recommendation on contacting major consultancy firms about economic appraisals |
|
| Lower: |
recommendation on QBCs |
5.3.
Actions by DFP had covered the other
recommendations on economic appraisals, and the publication of ISNI had dealt
with the final recommendation.
5.4.
The sub-group also agreed that EDF should give
consideration to Energy issues in view of recent seismic movements in the
energy agenda which were impacting on the economy. The Energy element of ISNI – primarily a
front-loaded amount for Renewables – might need to be revisited.
5.5.
There was a need to integrate ISNI with the
Economic Vision. EDF should promote the
economic infrastructure elements within ISNI to ensure that they received
sufficiently high priority.
6.
Future
Membership
6.1.
An approach would be made to secure a nominee from
the Advisory Council on Infrastructure Investment.
6.2.
A further person to be co-opted would be identified
from the Sustainable Development Stakeholder Group.
7.
Reports
to EDF
7.1.
A report would be prepared for the March EDF
meeting, covering:
·
The prioritisation of the recommendations from the
previous report
·
The PWC report on private sector capacity
·
Issues relating to the ISNI elements on Energy
·
The need for EDF to promote the economic elements
of ISNI and to ensure the integration of ISNI with the Economic Vision