MLA's Wade into Invest NI Chief Exec.

Who knew that call centre jobs would cause so much arguing. Though the story is an interesting case in point.

In February Invest NI say it was awarding Gem with £5.5M of assistance to create 900 new jobs. There was no mention of where these jobs were going to be, not Derry it seems. It now transpires that Gem are planning to lay off 20 employees in Derry.

There are now calls for Invest NI chief exec, Alastair Hamilton, to give the money on condition of saving the Derry jobs. Now I totally agree with the arguement, I don't agree that Alastair can actually influence a decision like this. It slightly smells of the "come to Belfast" tax breaks of past, "we'll give you money to move here!" sort of senario.

What I am going to do when I get chance to back track through the Invest NI press release pool and see where all the investment money is really going in terms of geographical location. It could be an interesting exercise.

As for the previous posts on Gem and call centres:

• Foster told to give SMEs priority over foreign investment
• Yet more call centre jobs on the way