Mr. Glyn Roberts:

I thank the Chairman. Retail NI represents almost 1,700 members, covering retail, wholesale, suppliers to the sector and a number of affiliated chambers of commerce and traders' groups. We have a very strong partnership with our colleagues in Retail Excellence Ireland. As Ms Higgins indicated, we have conducted joint research which was funded and supported by the former Tánaiste, Eamon Gilmore. This identified the needs in building, as Ms Higgins said, the island of Ireland's largest sector, our retail sector, and identified solutions to many of the problems retailers face across the island. That research was the first of its kind and both organisations hope to revisit it in the next few months, particularly in the light of Brexit.

Before I go into detail on Brexit, I want to touch on some of the issues that have arisen from our North-South research. Ms Higgins made some very good points about integrating the retail offer of our town and city centres in terms of the tourism product, which both tourist boards as well as Tourism Ireland also need to be considering. Strong, vibrant town centres have a lot to offer tourists.

We need to see some new, bold thinking in terms of the next big North-South projects. The North-South interconnector is well advanced now; we are just waiting to hear the outcome of the inquiry. There is also the A5-A6 link road - all of those projects are ongoing. We want to focus on one particular area, namely, the future of the Enterprise train service between Belfast and Dublin. For some time, we have been discussing the need to get a one-hour service between Belfast and Dublin. We believe the time has come for the Governments North and South, as well as the UK Government and possibly the European Union, to put that project into action. It may take five or ten years. but imagine the potential of having a one-hour train service between Belfast and Dublin. Not only would it be good for shoppers and tourism North and South, but it would be the biggest game changer for the all-island economy that there has been so far. Our key message in terms of development is that we should start the ball rolling now on that project. Although it may take a long time and a significant amount of funding, all we need is the ambition. The current Enterprise service is not fit for purpose. It probably takes 15 to 20 minutes longer than it did ten years ago. In the modern environment of high-speed electric trains, that is simply not good enough for this island.

Moving on to Brexit, Retail NI took a very strong position during the referendum. We were one of the few business organisations that openly campaigned to remain. I was vice chair of the Northern Ireland Stronger In campaign and was very proud of that. The decision in the referendum might best be described as someone jumping out of a plane without a parachute, hoping he will find a parachute on the way down. The uncertainty that has been created in Northern Ireland is putting a huge dampener on economic growth. It is clear that the Conservative Government is going for the hardest possible Brexit, leaving both the Single Market and the customs union. That is not good news for Northern Ireland or the Border with the Republic.

We need to see more than just vague assurances around there being no return to the borders of the past. Many of our members have all-Ireland supply chains from Cork to Coleraine. There are questions about the disruption to those chains if there is any hardening of the border. We should not forget that 75% of Northern Ireland's tourists come via the Republic as well. If there is to be a hardening of the Border, our worry is that this will see a decrease in the numbers of tourists coming from South to North. Incidentally, one of the practical issues which came up in the research we did a few years ago is that Northern Ireland is missing out on a significant number of high-end retail tourists who go to Dublin but do not come North. I am sure the Northern Ireland MPs who are here very much want to see those tourists coming North, as we do. Having a good, reliable train service is part and parcel of that.

We also need to cover the issue of EU nationals. Many of our members employ EU nationals, who make a huge positive contribution to our retail sector as well our hospitality and agrifood sectors. In fact, 48% of all agrifood workers in Northern Ireland are EU nationals. We need to ensure that those people can continue to contribute to our economy, that they will be welcome to stay, and that we remain open to EU workers coming to Northern Ireland. Nor should we forget that there are some 326,557 journeys every week between the North and the South, which equates to 46,654 per day. Any delay at the Border is not going to be good news. In Pat Doherty's constituency in Strabane, we have members who regularly commute from Lifford and who practically walk across the Border every day. I have members for whom a quarter of their workforce cross the Border for work. I know there are a number of Border Deputies here as well. We need to ensure that those people can continue to make a positive contribution to the economy as a whole.

There has been a lot of discussion about special status or special circumstances. We need to give more definition to what we mean by that. I am aware that the SDLP and Sinn Féin have produced position papers on this matter. We certainly do need some degree of special status, as has been recognised in Brussels. Our concern is that we do not have a functioning Executive in place while the Border is front and centre of the Brexit discussions. Not having local Ministers or a Brexit plan in place in terms of the Executive is a major handicap. That should be one of the factors that will spur agreement in the current talks.

In conclusion, whatever new relationship is made with the EU, it has to reflect Northern Ireland's unique circumstances. We are very clear that a post-Brexit Northern Ireland needs to be a self-confident outward-looking region which is the very best place in the UK and Ireland to locate and start a business. It is concerning that an early casualty of the ongoing problems at Stormont is the fact that our April 2018 deadline for corporation tax devolution looks like it is going to be lost. If we could get an Executive back, that would be a major step forward. The fall of the Government at Stormont came at the worst possible time, given what we are going through with Brexit.

The programme for government that we published a few weeks ago has been circulated to committee members, along with our North-South research. Both of our organisations are working together very closely. We have a lot of mutual members. We will be examining the impact of Brexit on the retail sector North and South.