Mr. Paddy Malone:

I thank the committee for the opportunity to present to it. Dundalk is more exposed than any other town to Brexit. To emphasise how important this issue is to Dundalk, Thursday is the tax deadline and, as I am a chartered accountant, I had to work until 4 o'clock this morning to be here today. Last year, I addressed an Oireachtas committee on the all-Ireland economy. Its report came out in January and much of the work done in it is of relevance to this committee's deliberations.

The issues I wish to raise are local, as distinct from the national issues which have already been raised. Every day, 3,000 commuters travel back and forward across the Border in our region. Across the entire Border, 30,000 people commute. They are attracted to PayPal, eBay and others on the southern side and to First Derivatives, Glen Dimplex and others on the northern side. What time does one leave work to pick up the kids from a crèche if one is going to encounter a PSNI, Garda or customs checkpoint? This will disrupt the whole region and the way it works. We are trying to integrate the region between Newry and Mourne District Council and Louth County Council. The first memorandum of understanding between two local authorities from two jurisdictions was signed between these two councils. This is a development of which we are proud but now it will be demolished.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, will face significant delays, and subsequently extra transportation costs if they have to cross the Border. This will also bring challenges to the supply chains which already exist. Instead of looking to the North or the South, we are going to lose trade automatically with that situation.

We are worried about the PEACE IV dividend. The British Government has said it will stop sanctioning PEACE IV projects beyond 2019. We are seriously concerned that the peace process has not been embedded sufficiently to allow it to stop prematurely like that.

We are already aware of one research project in Dundalk working in conjunction with a Portuguese research institute and Queen's University Belfast. The Portuguese institute has indicated that if Queen's University Belfast is going out of the EU, it will have to find a new partner. While that might offer opportunities for other Irish universities, it similarly offers threats as well. If we want to do research properly and develop the next generation of products, this has to be seriously tackled.

The retail sector will be decimated if sterling drops to between 90p and 93p to the euro. We faced this problem since 1979, when the link with sterling and the punt was broken. We faced it again in 2008 and 2009. This one is different in that it could well last for a longer time. We suggest central government introduces some form of rates remission scheme and direct subsidy into the Louth area. At the moment, Louth has already the poorest collection of rates and Dundalk is the poorest within that. Over 40% of rates have not been collected for years.

The SME support which Mr. Arnold Dillon spoke of is critical. However, it should not be directed at export-oriented companies. Companies in Dundalk effectively face import substitution by trying to tackle companies coming from Newry. In the same way Enterprise Ireland and others are geared towards encouraging exports, an import substitution company serves the same purpose. We would strongly recommend that the Government does not just look simply at export-oriented companies but considers small indigenous companies, which are the lifeblood of any town.

Dundalk is ranked number nine of the nine gateway towns in the Republic, based on a 2013 Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government report. That cemented the findings of a report commissioned by Dundalk Chamber of Commerce and Louth County Council which showed Dundalk was the poorest of the nine gateways in 2011. In that report, Newry was ranked the second poorest town in the North. Only Strabane, which is the poorest in the UK, managed to beat it. The area has been decimated by the serious underdevelopment of economic activity since 1920. The one area which offers a chance for both areas, North and South, is its tourist potential, especially at Carlingford Lough. However, it has been grossly underutilised. Belfast thinks of Derry as a region. Dublin thinks of Galway and Cork. No one thinks of Louth or the North. Up to 60% of the population is within an hour's drive of Carlingford Lough but its tourism potential is not well utilised. If we are going to tackle Brexit, we need to think of Northern Ireland, the Border counties and how they are going to suffer. That long-term dislocation is going to be significantly severe for the region.