Anthony Lawlor (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the representatives and apologise for my late arrival. Like Senator Feargal Quinn, I was doing business in the North for the first time in 1992 and 1993 when I was buying wool in Nationalist and Unionist areas. When I asked Unionist farmers how they felt dealing with a company from the South, I was fascinated when they said - typical of any businessman - that they were loyal to the Crown but more loyal to the half-crown. From that I found that if business could be done to break barriers it was easy to achieve much success.

A question I have not yet heard discussed is that of currency differentiation. Four years ago, many people travelled to the North to do their shopping, but that has stopped, due in part to the currency differentiation. At the time the UK economy was devaluing sterling against the euro. Now the reverse is happening, with the euro being devalued against the two major currencies.

From an all-island perspective, how should we address this situation? Should we have one currency for the whole island or a fixed rate? When the euro was being brought in, for a period of time there was a fixed rate between the various currencies. We may talk about tax harmonisation but unless something is in place, there will be violent fluctuations, such as those between the two currencies over the past year. It leads to difficulties for individuals and small companies, in particular, to trade cross-Border.