Mr. Neil McDonnell:

I do not intend to read our very short presentation to the committee as only some issues in it are different from the concerns we expressed in other committees. Our Brexit concerns are pretty consistent across the economy. With a particular relevance to this committee we noted first the community programmes available to people in the Border area that are EU-funded. We have asked whether there will be a commitment from Dublin and London to continue funding those community programmes in the absence of EU funding for them on the Northern Ireland side?

We also make the point that the levels of deprivation are known to be higher in the Border, midlands and west region, and the greatest protection against deprivation is a job. The greatest threat is economic. Notwithstanding what the committee heard about hard borders - it goes without saying that a hard Border would have a significantly negative effect - soft borders can be put in place with excessive administration, taxes and tariffs.

The next point is not part of our submitted presentation because we only completed the results of an ISME survey on the likely impact of Brexit yesterday. I have sent a copy to the committee. Of course, it is not possible to get material, accurate information on the effects of Brexit because we do not know what Brexit will look like. It is possible to ask firms and small and medium enterprises to establish their exposure to Brexit, which we did through six very simple questions to which we had a very high response rate. Of note to the committee is that while most companies did not forecast a reduction in headcount, 17% of companies did so. Most companies had no plans to relocate their business into the UK as a result of Brexit but 11% of member companies did; we see that as a significant number given the sectoral break-out of our companies.

There is another sensitive topic not in our paper. I am aware that many committee members, as part of the Oireachtas and individual parties, have made public utterances in support of special economic zone status for Northern Ireland. We are all in favour of that but we must impress on members that in order to avoid social dumping in this jurisdiction, it is important from an employment law perspective that Northern Ireland workers are either in or out; they cannot be a little bit of both. Employers in the North cannot have an àla carteapproach to what set of employment standards they will follow. It is not in the interests of employers or employees for this to be the case. Therefore, it is very important that in service industries, for example, there is a clear understanding about whether the working time directive would continue to apply to workers who could ply their trade on both sides of the Border. I am very happy to take any questions.