Trump's Antrim visit raises golf plan fears

Published on Saturday 22 December 2007 18:50

DONALD Trump is set to visit to Northern Ireland next month, amid concern among business leaders in Scotland that the tycoon is preparing to ditch his golf course plans for Aberdeenshire and take them across the Irish Sea.

Ian Paisley Jnr, the son of Northern Ireland's First Minister Ian Paisley, told Scotland on Sunday that Trump had been invited in January. The billionaire property developer has an option on land in County Antrim and is expected to make a trip there before deciding whether to buy.

Sources close to the negotiations say that the Trump organisation is not limiting itself to an "either-or", in which it would choose one of Northern Ireland or Scotland for a new course.

But there are growing fears among business chiefs who support his plans that the political storm which has been caused by the Trump deal in Scotland could send the developer elsewhere.

Paisley Jnr said: "I don't think this is an either-or situation. We have invited Mr Trump to come to Northern Ireland and we hope that will happen in the New Year."

Meanwhile, Geoff Runcie, chief executive of Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce, has warned that Scotland has "played out an amateur production on the world's stage".

He said: "Our big name star – Donald Trump – has auditioned and made known his ambitions for the show but has come to the stage only to find himself playing alongside the amateur dramatics team. The words of our bard Robert Burns 'to see ourselves as others see us' have clearly not registered with many and we still put petty and party politics before serious economic opportunity."

First Minister Alex Salmond is facing a parliamentary inquiry in the New Year into his handling of the deal.