Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 8 December 2020

Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement

The Northern Ireland Economy: Discussion

Photo of Rose Conway-WalshRose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this session today. I sincerely thank the witnesses for their valuable contributions to the all-Ireland economic discussion that must form the essential part of reshaping our island. The papers they have written facilitate and inform a discussion that is currently being held in households and businesses throughout the country and beyond. I propose that all of the people who have taken time to do some analysis and to write papers on this, whether national or international, be invited to appear before the committee. We are doing a service to people today who have genuine questions around what an all-island economy would look like.

Obviously, Brexit and Covid have changed the economic landscape of the islands we are talking about. Among the largest untapped avenues for growth potential in the Irish economy are the green economy and the opportunity cost of partition, in terms of the significant potential of the green economy and the transition to a zero carbon economy.

I want to focus on the subvention and acknowledge that a deficit requiring subvention exists. We need to put that on the table. However, the €10 billion headline figure, or the €13 billion figure I heard mentioned by, I understand, Mr. Ian Paisley Jr. a couple of weeks ago, need further analysis. My first question for Professor Fitzgerald concerns the revenue raised in the North. Would he agree that it is €18.5 billion? I will ask a number of short questions, if that is okay.

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