Debate contribution: Regional Balance
Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on .
- MLA
- Dr Caoimhe Archibald
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 14 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution (made as a minister)
- Business
- Oral Answers to Questions
- Heading
- Regional Balance
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5685555
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I thank the Member for his question. We have been developing a policy on clustering with Invest NI. There has been a significant focus on certain clusters in particular. The Minister — the Member will be aware from his time as Health Minister of the health and life sciences cluster the Health Innovation Research Alliance (HIRANI), which is probably one of our most well developed clusters. We also have a very well developed advanced manufacturing cluster. We are seeing further progress across different clustering areas through the Shared Island enterprise fund. There is also a focus on all-island clusters and how we can develop those across the island to support the strengthening of businesses, north and south. They bring together industry, academia and various public bodies. They are collectively stronger than the sum of their parts and can see real benefit from clustering. Clustering can be either geographical or sectoral and pertain to different business types. There are opportunities to grow different sectors of the economy and to focus on that at a regional level. As I said, investment is being made into that by Invest NI and also through the Shared Island Fund. It is an area of work that will continue to progress and deliver good results.
209 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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