Dr. Tom Healy:

The Single Market is probably the best area in which progress can be made in encouraging co-operation. It makes good sense and, as Deputy Kyne mentioned, the impact of European rules and regulations is a natural area in which co-operation and co-ordination can take place. One example of that, which is obviously a long-term issue, is harnessing wind and solar energy, particularly ocean-based sources of energy, and the possibilities of transferring and moving some of that energy source across the island, given the excess demand for electricity, particularly on the island of Great Britain. We should also be mindful, as we talk about an all-island perspective, that there is also an all-islands perspective, and all of this fits together naturally. What Northern Ireland and the Republic have in common in particular is a very problematic dependency on fossil fuel imports, so any initiative, either at European level or commercially here, to rise to that challenge and shift the dependency on traditional sources of energy, is very welcome. We are conscious of the role of the ESB in terms of Northern Ireland's electricity supply. Costs are an issue, which partly reflects the density and nature of the population in Ireland.

I will now give a graphic example of how public and private investment has, in some cases, not been keeping pace with economic development. We have had a huge surge forward in terms of road transport in the Republic. The M1 motorway, for example, has made a huge contribution to shortening the distance between Belfast and Dublin compared to 20 years ago. However, it is notable that the carriages on the Enterprise express train between Dublin and Belfast date from the early 1990s, so when I travel on the train, as I do regularly, I cannot charge my phone. There are no sockets as the train is from the pre-smartphone era. Wi-Fi is also pretty unreliable. Anyone who uses the transport between Belfast and Dublin, particularly in some areas which I will not name, can assume the coverage will go down. From a business point of view, Wi-Fi is important in every area of the country, including areas of the west and north, from the perspective of tourism, services, and activity in all sectors. That is an area where public and private strategic investment could play a crucial role.