A leading Northern Ireland business figure has resigned from the board of Invest NI alleging discrimination against the north-west.
Former O’Neills sportswear boss Kieran Kennedy walked out of a June 26 meeting of the agency’s board in Belfast after stating he had lost all faith in Invest NI’s leadership team.
The Co Tyrone-based businessman spent five years on the board and was due to complete his second three year term in April 2026.
During that time, Mr Kennedy became a leading voice inside the organisation calling for more to be done to address regional balance, particularly in Derry.
Invest NI committed to strengthening its regional impact following Sir Michael Lyons’ highly critical January 2023 independent review, where he found decision making was largely centralised in Belfast.
Out of a workforce of 647 in March 2022, he found just 50 staff were based in the regional offices across Ballymena, Derry, Newry, Omagh and Craigavon.
Sinn Féin committed to addressing regional balance when the party took the Economy portfolio in 2024, with former Economy Minister Conor Murphy launching a new £45 million strategy in October 2024.
Nine months on, those efforts have been dealt an embarrassing blow following Mr Kennedy’s resignation.
The well known businessman, who retired after a 42 year career with O’Neills in 2021, said he did not wish to comment on his resignation when contacted by The Irish News, but the details are now a matter of public record following the publication of the minutes from Invest NI’s June 26 board meeting.
In that meeting, Invest NI’s director of regional business, Iain Joannides, said the executive committee of the organisation had decided against moving its Derry office from Timber Quay to a new location.
Asked for his input as a former chair of Invest NI’s regional partnerships committee (RPC), Mr Kennedy responded by saying he was both “angry and disappointed” with the decision, adding that he did not see any change in culture in the leadership team.
According to the minutes, Mr Kennedy said, in his opinion: ‘The team was not committed to achieving regional balance and felt that the NW [north west] was being discriminated against.
“He further stated that, in his opinion, ExCo [executive committee] did not want to make alternative locations work and he had lost all faith in them as a leadership team.”
At that point, Mr Kennedy tendered his resignation.
The minutes state that Invest NI’s chairman and former Allstate boss John Healy responded by expressing disappointment with Mr Kennedy’s decision, adding that ‘he thought he was wrong’.
Mr Healy told the meeting: ‘The operational decision reached is the only option that is currently viable, but finding a best fit for the regional office in the NW is a continuing priority.’
Following Kieran Kennedy’s departure from the meeting, Mr Healy reiterated the board’s support for Invest NI’s leadership and its handling of the Derry office.
“The board, therefore, rejected Kieran Kennedy’s perspective and endorsed the approach of the executive leadership team. “
Invest NI was contacted for comment.
Manufacturing NI’s Derry-based chief executive, Stephen Kelly, said: “Kieran’s professional, voluntary and personal commitment to the north west is without challenge so this is a concern particularly as he had a front seat while being on the Invest NI board for the past five years including working through the outcomes of the Lyon’s review.
“This week there’s another massive jobs boost for Belfast, so it’s important that Invest are very visibly seen as delivering on their own plan and the minister’s ‘regional balance’ priority by supporting at scale those sub-regional areas that need the most help.”
by kharma45
12 comments
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the North West is the poor relation of NI
>The board, therefore, rejected Kieran Kennedy’s perspective and endorsed the approach of the executive leadership team
No shit. It’s great that someone took a stand and said it.
On the wider stage, when nationalists are accused of ‘not wanting NI to work’; well this is what it looks like to have it ‘work’. Hoard everything for the right people in the right areas.
Sure just the other day there was another ‘good-news’ story about more US firms setting up in Belfast.
Would be good news if Invest NI didn’t sell us off as cheap disposable workers.
Derry has an airport and road links, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t be sold to employers instead of cramming everyone and their granny into working in Belfast which already has strained transport issues and a woeful shortage of housing.
The shocking thing here is there are 647 Invest NI employees.
What the fuck do they do all day? Plan meetings about meetings I guess.
That’s an incredible amount of overhead for a body that basically issues grants, sends people on trade jollies and manages a few subsidies!
Fucking scrap the whole thing, and plough the money into health!
InvestNI is a joke. Only ever seen them in the news for something negative
I think John Healy is from Derry ? I had business dealings with him before.
This is a Sinn Féin led department and they seem to have said absolutely nothing about this today apart from hopey / changey claptrap from the department’s press office. The minister, Caoimhe Archibald is from Co. Derry, she can’t be unaware of the issues or the optics here.
600+ Invest NI staff in Belfast and up to 10, allegedly, in Derry. If Sinn Féin are in any way serious about correcting regional imbalance they need to take some concrete steps soon. Why not move the Invest NI HQ to Ebrington, that would be a start.
Why are all the new American backed jobs only going to Belfast? What about places like Enniskillen that have also lost hundreds of jobs recently?
SF ran dept…no one else to blame here.
The same InvestNI that funnelled millions into wrightbus while the money was being taken out the side door for Green Pastures.
I’d love to see the actual return on what their incredible resources are. Because we’ve fuck all infrastructure, transport, housing or high paying jobs here. What the fuck is it all for? Another Stormont quagmire.
I met with invest ni last week. I fully expected them to be helpful but as it turns out, they’re as useful as a chocolate fireguard.
Looks like interesting-win is another wee troll given he’s replied to a reasonable response then blocked me.
This will be the same NW that drove away a potential recruiter from a jobs fair?
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