ENTERPRISE Minister Arlene Foster says she cannot support the view of local political representatives, including her DUP colleague Maurice Morrow, that the Aventas Group in Derrylin must remain exclusively locally owned.

All of the Fermanagh-south Tyrone MLAs apart from Mrs. Foster signed an agreement this week that any initiative which proposes to retain the businesses under a locally-based management structure “should be fully explored as a matter of priority”.

The agreement reads: “There is a desire that this be done in advance of any piecemeal disposal of the constituent parts of the former Quinn Group. The representatives are of a common view that keeping the former Quinn Group of companies together would represent the best outcome for the local workforce and the best opportunity for future investment in the businesses locally”.

The support from Sinn Fein MLAs Bronwyn McGahan, Sean Lynch and Phil Flanagan, and MP Michelle Gildernew, Ulster Unionist MLA Tom Elliott, DUP MLA Maurice Morrow and SDLP MLA Joe Byrne of West Tyrone has been welcomed by QBRC Consortium, the group of businessmen, including Erne Fisher, who want to take over Sean Quinn’s former company.

But Minister Foster has told The Impartial Reporter that she was not asked to endorse the cross-party agreement and even if she had been “I wouldn’t have signed it”.

“As enterprise minister, I spend a lot of time looking for investment into Northern Ireland and go across the world to bring companies here; I cannot discriminate against local investment and investment coming from outside Northern Ireland.” “Look at what was Quinn Insurance, which is now Liberty Mutual. That has been allowed to continue in Enniskillen because of investment from outside Northern Ireland. People should recognise that if that had not happened then those jobs would have been lost,” she said.

The politicians signed off their agreement calling on the Aventas Group to “pause any plans to sell off or break up any part of the Group until such time as all prospects of keeping it intact and continued to be managed locally have been fully explored and exhausted”.