Sir Reg Empey has responded to a damning report by a Stormont watchdog on his department's handling of a failed attempt to establish a campus of the University of Ulster at a Belfast peace line.
The Public Accounts Committee criticised both the university and the Department of Employment and Learning over the failure of the high-profile project and the ensuing loss of some £3.6 million (€5.15 million). Former US president Bill Clinton cut the first sod at the site of the proposed campus in Springvale in 1998, accompanied by the then British prime minister Tony Blair.
However, the project was dropped by the University of Ulster in 2002. The committee findings said both the university and the department lost the will to succeed in the project which was "stamped with failure".
The report said members felt strongly that the department "failed in its role as the government's representative on Springvale".
The project was aimed at helping to regenerate an interface area of north and west Belfast which suffered during the conflict and to boost student numbers from the area, which is under-represented at third level.
Sinn Féin West Belfast Assembly member Paul Maskey said the SDLP was particularly culpable. "Not only did the University of Ulster fail local people but the role of the Department of Employment and Learning, led by Carmel Hanna [ of the SDLP], in all of this was 'appalling', to quote the report," he said.
"I welcome the recommendation that the Executive takes a new look at putting in place a new educationally 'significant' facility on the site and I will be taking this up with Reg Empey."
Sir Reg, the current Minister who was industry minister at the time of the project's collapse, said last night his current department was not in a position to press the University of Ulster to continue with the Springvale development at the time.
In a statement he said: "I should like to make clear that the proposal to develop a campus at Springvale was put to the department by the promoters, the University of Ulster and the Belfast Institute of Further and Higher Education. These are autonomous bodies and it was for the university to determine its own priorities.
"The department could not compel the university to reconsider its September 2002 decision to withdraw. The department demonstrated its willingness to consider a viable alternative for the provision of further and higher education at Springvale, by immediately asking the Springvale board to review the project."
Sir Reg, currently on an investment trip to New York, added: "I entirely agree that the levels of deprivation and low educational attainment in north and west Belfast are unacceptable and that action is needed."