Former Taoiseach calls for more Shared Island funding to help boost Derry University

Leo Varadkar urged all parties contesting the forthcoming general election in the Republic of Ireland to put more money into the Shared Island Fund to improve facilities, including the Ulster University's Magee campus.

The former Taoiseach, who stepped down earlier this year, outlined that idea and a series of other proposals as he addressed schoolchildren at an event in Derry hosted as part of the SDLP’s New Ireland Commission initiative.

He said: “One thing that I was struck by talking to the young people today was the very large number who are thinking of going away to university or elsewhere for their training after school as they are concerned that there aren’t enough jobs or good jobs in Derry, and that struck me as you don’t hear that as much in Dublin, Galway, or Cork.

“Something that Colum (Eastwood) touched on that has to be part of our new Ireland is to make sure here in the north-west part of Ireland that we have a bigger university than we have at the moment, so the courses are there, and that if people want to go to Britain, Dublin, or Belfast, that it is a choice, people shouldn’t have to leave the city because courses aren’t available.”

The Magee Taskforce's interim report estimates that Derry could reach 10,000 students by 2032, but this will require an investment of about £700m.

The taskforce, set up in March by the Economy Minister Conor Murphy to bring forward an action plan to expand Ulster University’s Magee campus in Derry to 10,000 students as soon as practicable, published its comprehensive 72-page interim report on September 11.

The Irish Government had pledged €45 million prior to the report, and Mr. Varadkar said they remain committed to achieving the expansion of the Magee campus in Derry.

The former premier said: “More money into the shared island fund, contributing to the cost of the A5 and the improvement of facilities here for the universities.

“I think for this part of the country, the north-west, partition probably did more harm than anywhere else in the country; as Derry and Donegal were split from each other, Derry was split from its natural hinterland, and we are seeing things happening now like the development of the university at Magee, hopefully the building of the A5, and the new services at Altnagelvin.

“Things that should have happened decades ago or even generations ago that didn’t happen because of the critical mass of population because it wasn’t there in Donegal or it wasn’t there in Derry, and so things went to Dublin, Belfast, or Galway instead, and I think that is now something that is slowly changing.”