Dr. Brian Hughes:

It is. If we look at the entire island, half of the population is located in the Dublin-Belfast corridor and the surrounding areas. That is just the reality. The shift is taking place further east. The current centre of gravity of the national population on a single point is now focused on the town of Maynooth and is moving further eastward. That historically has been the case since the foundation of the State, particularly because of the centralised nature of our Government and the fact that so much activity is going on within Dublin. There are gains to be had in the Dublin-Belfast corridor, and obviously also the other corridors of Derry-Letterkenny and so on and forth. The Dublin-Belfast one is hugely important. It is about the accessibility of it. Dublin Airport, with its 29 million people a year, is not just available to Dublin but is only 20 minutes down the road from Drogheda, for example. Likewise, Dublin Port, doing 30 million tonnes a year, is similarly located. It is the complementarity that might be achieved in an all-Ireland context with a satisfactory post-Brexit situation that we are now trying to negotiate. That will hugely benefit the country if we can get it right.