THERE were tetchy exchanges between Enterprise Minister Arlene Foster and Sinn Fein’s Phil Flanagan in the Assembly on Monday during a lively debate on jobs and the economy.

As members met to discuss a Sinn Fein motion calling on the Executive to address the regional imbalance in jobs, there was little agreement between the two Fermanagh-south Tyrone MLAs.

During the debate, Mr Flanagan, Sinn Fein’s spokesperson for Enterprise, Trade and Investment, was critical of Invest Northern Ireland and stated that there had not been a single Invest Northern Ireland-led visit by a potential foreign investor to Fermanagh or Tyrone since 2009.

“That is simply not good enough; it is a shameful indictment of the Department and Invest NI and it needs to change,” said Mr Flanagan, adding that “not nearly enough is being done to get investment into struggling rural areas, which are being hammered by the return of forced emigration”.

He said “far too much emphasis” had been spent “on trying to get investment into already thriving and affluent areas such as east Belfast and south Belfast”.

In response, Mrs Foster quoted the late Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, saying: “It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.” “We have had a lot of darkness here today but I want to say to the Members opposite that I will keep turning on the light, even though you continue to curse the darkness,” added the Minister.

Mrs Foster stated “quite categorically” that Invest Northern Ireland has not been “deliberately withholding information” or “secretly squirrelling it away”.

“It is also important to note that Invest NI does not determine location. Mr Flanagan does not think that that point is worth very much, but it is true. We do not force people to go to particular areas in Northern Ireland. They tell us where they want to go, and we facilitate that. We do that because people make bids. They sell themselves and are positive. That is one reason why I have got very involved in the Smart region concept in Fermanagh and Omagh,” she said.

With preparations under way for Invest Northern Ireland’s 2014 international staff conference, which is to be held in Fermanagh, the Enterprise Minister criticised Mr Flanagan for making “negative” comments about the event last week.

“That is absolutely disgraceful from Mr Flanagan... it is the kind of opportunistic stuff that I expect from him,” she said, with interruption from the floor.

Reiterating his initial points, the Sinn Fein MLA responded by telling the Chamber that at an Assembly backed event in Enniskillen last week, 78 per cent of the young people present did not think that they would be living in Fermanagh in 10 years because of the “lack of job opportunities.” “Was that the same conference at which the Member told young people that the only thing that I had brought to Fermanagh was fracking?” responded Mrs Foster.

“Yes,” replied Mr Flanagan.

“When did the fracking start in Fermanagh?” asked the Minister.

 Mr Flanagan replied: “The Minister is nearly correct, except for the tense. It was a passive tense and a present tense, as opposed to a past tense.” He later added that his party’s motion was “not some attempt to attack any Minister in a party political way”.

“We are calling on the Executive to do something; we are not highlighting the failures of any one Minister or government agency. In my opening speech, I highlighted some of the good work that Invest NI has done and some of the major improvements that have been made,” he said, as Mrs Foster interrupted him.

“Is the Minister going to listen, or what is the story?” asked Mr Flanagan.

“The Member contradicted himself in his own statement by saying that the only positive thing that I had brought to Fermanagh was fracking, and he then went on to talk about the good work that Invest NI has been engaged in,” said Mrs Foster.

“Aye; dead on,” replied Mr Flanagan, “The Minister was too busy tutting during the debate to listen to what people were saying. She was tutting, sighing and putting her head up in the air. That is not going to work.” Also taking part in the debate was former Enniskillen journalist, Fearghal McKinney, now a SDLP MLA for south Belfast.

“Turn on the radio any day of the week and you hear people complaining, with justification, that our political system spends too much time debating flags and parades and neglects the bread-and-butter issues in general and the provision of jobs in particular.” “John Hume often related the one political lesson his father taught him: you cannot eat a flag – any flag.

“That is a diet that our people have had to live on for far too long, and we are the people who should be providing new and better forms of sustenance,” said Mr McKinney, who proposed an amendment to the Sinn Fein motion, which was later carried.

On Monday night, both Mr Flanagan and Mrs Foster took to their social media websites to comment on the debate. “DUP say by highlighting failure of Arlene Foster to bring a potential investor to Fermanagh in four years, I’m being negative about the county,” tweeted the Sinn Fein MLA.

On her Facebook page, Mrs Foster wrote: “Phil Flanagan is such an embarrassment to Sinn Fein that he has to propose and wind on his motion. #nomates.”