Emer Currie (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate IBEC on an excellent report. I did not know how much we needed this report until I read it. Twenty-five years on, it is very valuable to have a reflection on the successes since the Good Friday Agreement.

It is my opinion that partition has been a disaster for this island, which many other people would share. However, we have clawed back good results over the last 25 years and stabilised the country. We have seen the tragic impact violence has had but we have seen the dividends of peace. We wish we were not in a position where we are talking about the dividends of peace as if had never happened, but that is the reality we will have to overcome no matter what happens in the future.

One of those things is obviously the impact on infrastructure and education and the differences in productivity North and South. An issue that comes up repeatedly for us is to do with the factors that influence that productivity, particularly with regard to the education system and differences in productivity and early school leavers and then the brain drain to the UK.

The witnesses are speaking to the converted about the all-island economy, which has become a buzz word. It is a very practical description of what it is but it has become a buzz word over the last few years. Kudos to the dairy and whiskey sectors in IBEC that have led the way around all-island supply chains. We identified 12 areas of co-operation in the Good Friday Agreement. I and others would have liked to have seen that evolve over the 25 years and we have not seen that. We have not seen new areas of co-operation added to those 12 areas. Of course, the collapse of the Assembly has not helped with regard to bodies such as Waterways Ireland, which have been significantly impacted by the cycle of crisis and collapse when it comes to the Assembly.

What are the barriers to the all-island economy as IBEC sees it now? If we get through the protocol, what are the barriers to really maximising the potential of the all-island economy? The witnesses touched on areas like energy, transport and research and development. Tax is a really important issue. The witnesses talked about the importance of a mobile workforce. When it comes to remote working, there are differences in the tax systems that need to be addressed. When I look at the shared island unit, I see that we are being proactive in that area to try to make up for some areas of lack of co-operation and advancement. However, we also have the opportunity 25 years on to perhaps look at those North-South bodies as part of strand 2. Would IBEC recommend that?

Mr. D'Arcy and Mr. O'Brien touched on the tools that might be used to help this, whether it is macroeconomic data or other projects and tools that would help us because we need the pillars to sustain the all-island economy. What are those pillars? We know the areas we want to work on but what are the pillars by which we can measure and drive that? What are the barriers?

I commend Ms Gallagher on the brilliant report and case studies. I presume that as the year goes on, if this is a year-long campaign, she will be talking more about the potential and opportunities. What can this committee do as part of looking at that? We are doing a report. We have been doing work on maximising North-South co-operation and Ms Gallagher's input into that will be really important.