Colum Eastwood MLA
Colum Eastwood is an SDLP MLA for Foyle, and a former Derry City councillor for Shantallow (2005-2011). He was Derry’s youngest Mayor, aged 27, in 2010-2011. At Stormont, he sits on the OFMDFM Committee (as party spokesman on that remit) and the Justice Committee. He is also Assembly Private Secretary to Environment Minister Alex Attwood.
How did you get started in politics?
It was the signing of the Good Friday Agreement which initiated my active participation in politics. I joined the SDLP young and became immersed in all the activities which followed as result of that membership.
I suppose my thinking was at the time, and remains, that this historic accommodation to the Anglo-Irish conflict was a chance to create a new and better Ireland. That probably sounds very lofty now but without that political architecture we’d be in a much worse place.
I also strongly felt that peace was not simply the absence of war or violence. It should be a lot more ambitious than that, ultimately cultivating a culture on this island of good governance as well as a proud, inclusive citizenship.
What do you want to achieve in Foyle by 2015?
I said in my maiden speech to the Assembly that Derry has for far too long been at the heart of Ireland’s history but at the fringe of its economic development. That’s a feeling, I think, which runs very deep within the psyche of Derry people, justifiably so.
That being said, I think the next number of years, coinciding with my own mandate at Stormont, offers a lot a hope that this trend of depressed economic activity and unemployment can be reversed. After the release of the Saville report, the launch of the Peace Bridge and the fast approaching City of Culture year in 2013, there is a feel good factor flowing throughout the town.
My job is to ensure that this growing confidence is used to engineer a better quality of life for all our people, particularly though for the disadvantaged and vulnerable. The expansion of the university at Magee, the ‘One’ city regeneration plan and an influx of FDI employment are at the top of the list of my priorities. With an equality of distribution from the Executive at Stormont, I would hope that Derry, along with the whole of the island of Ireland, will be on a firm trajectory of sustainable growth by 2015.
What has your work as Assembly Private Secretary involved to date?
It has been a great privilege, so early in my mandate as an MLA, to gain access to a government department. Ultimately I would be guided by the belief that the role and ambition of any politician should be to enact a positive transformation to the manner and ethos by which government works.
Environment contains a wide and varied brief, encompassing local government, planning and obviously the renewable business sector. My role as APS in the department has mainly, thus far, entailed helping the Minister in all of these different responsibilities. Obviously as a Derry MLA, I also pay particular attention to those issues impacting upon West of the Bann.
How relevant is your role as OFMDFM Spokesman to life on the ground in Derry?
I was delighted to be appointed OFMDFM Spokesperson precisely because of its potentially positive effects for my own constituency in Derry. The OFMDFM department is the core funder of the regeneration company Ilex, in charge of the regeneration of former army installations at Fort George and Ebrington. These twin sites are a key part of Derry’s economic ambition and thus far there has been too much of a delay in their development. I will attempt to use my role as spokesperson to apply pressure, in order to ensure that the requisite funding from the department is forthcoming.
The equality aspect of the OFMDFM role will also allow me to speak up for older people, children and the disabled who are especially at risk of becoming victims of either societal or governmental discrimination.
What experience outside politics do you bring to your role as MLA?
Politics is a profession which, out of necessity, encompasses all of the experiences of life, so it would be impossible to be specific. As a one of the younger MLAs, though, I would hope to bring a little bit of a different perspective to the role.
What are your main interests outside politics?
I’m a big Derry City FC fan and try to get to as many matches as I can. I also, like most Derry people, try and get away to Donegal once in a while. Aside from that I would also follow a fair bit of music; a number of my family would be very musical so I’m generally kept up to speed on the live music scene.
