Ritchie lobbied for jobs

Fraida Silver Marketing Director at Firstsource told the Sentinel progress was being made on finding a suitable location for the new centre originally announced two years ago.

She said: "There has been some progress since May 2008. We are planning to open a new site in the North West of Northern Ireland," she said.

""Hopefully this is sooner rather than later and will be good news for the area," she added.

Meanwhile the Sentinel can also reveal SDLP leader Margaret Ritchie asked for the 500 call centre jobs that Invest NI believed were earmarked for Londonderry to be located in her own constituency of South Down.

On May Day two years ago Mr Dodds announced the expansion of Firstsource's Londonderry operation with the creation of a further 334 new jobs and a third European Centre of Excellence creating a further 500 new jobs.

Less than a week later the South Down MLA was lobbying the Minister asking him to consider the South Down Business Park as the location for the new jobs-boosting centre.

Documents released to the Sentinel under FOI legislation show that in the run up to the jobs announcement Invest NI considered the North West favourite to land the Centre of Excellence.

A briefing document prepared for Mr Dodds by John Hood on April 18, 2008 outlines the background to the project and reads:"Firstsource now plans to expand its current operation by creating a further 334 new jobs. It also plans to create its third Centre of Excellence in the North West, creating a further 500 new jobs in the North West."

The document says the expansion of the Londonderry operation was to focus on sales and telecoms whilst the new Centre of Excellence would focus on the financial services sector.

A month later Mr Dodds was advised by Invest NI that Ms Ritchie had written urging him to consider the South Down Business Park as a potential location for Firstsource Solutions' third centre.

"With regards to the location of the third centre, there are highly sensitive, and ongoing commercial negotiations with both the landlord of the proposed property and with the Company's intended clients," the briefing reads.

"Given the nature of these negotiations the Company specifically requested that no formal announcement of the third location be made at this time."

Mr Dodds was advised to write to the SDLP representative and point out Invest NI would promote Northern Ireland only and if the call centre sought information on specific locations then it would work with the local stakeholders to promote the areas in question.

He subsequently wrote to the South Down MLA stating: "Firstsource is currently engaged in confidential commercial property negotiations and cannot, at this time, disclose the location under consideration.

"I fully appreciate what South Down has to offer and am aware of the facilities at Down Business Centre. However, the final location decision rests with Firstsource and I know they have conducted an extensive evaluation before making a decision. Once the negotiations have been successfully concluded, Firstsource will announce the location of their third centre."

A location for the proposed third Centre of Excellence has still not been announced.

But in September 2008 an internal DETINI briefing document obtained by the Sentinel noted thatFirstsource was "considering a number of potential locations in the North West for this third site."

And now Firstsource has told the Sentinel the new centre will be located in the North West.

Announcing the firm's local expansion plans in 2008 Matthew Vallance, President, said: "Our Belfast and Derry centres provide high-end business processing services that have achieved very high levels of customer satisfaction.

"This planned expansion will build upon that success and also create another European Centre of Excellence that will help to advance Firstsource Solutions' global reach." Invest NI has offered 6,672,000 which includes 834,000 of training support for the project."