Mr. John McGrane:

On the golden opportunity for Northern Ireland, the Senator heard my remarks at the outset. Regarding the wider point concerning the quietness of the business voice, Senator Martin is not wrong. It is a puzzle to many folks that businesses that know so much about their operating environment are strangely quiet about it. To be fair, business people just go about their business and it falls to people like us in the representative organisations, the unique franchise which it is our privilege to have, to speak on behalf of businesses on both islands, north, south, east and west, about the investment they make in employment and well-being in their communities. It falls to people like us to give voice to that on their behalf.

In the modern era, the Senator will not need me to tell him that the public space can be an uncomfortable one, not least for public figures and politicians. Business people who look at social media and, frankly, the lack of manners shown in some quarters in response to the great work done by public officials and public representatives may decide they do not want to expose themselves to that, just for making a point. They correctly look to people like us to do that for them and it is our responsibility to aggregate their points of view and communicate the message. As Mr. Molloy just said, and as Mr. Lynam touched on in various ways earlier, we act as an aggregator of business opinion to get the message across.

We are not in the business of shouting at anybody. Life is too short. We are in the business of proposing solutions. I am glad to say that much of the work we have been doing during our ten years in existence, today being our tenth anniversary, has found its way into political discourse and departmental thinking. The proof point lies in whether we are invited back. We are privileged to be on a growing number of public body committees on both islands and we are invited back. That validates our view that we are saying things which are useful to the public policymaking process. We will continue to do that.

One of those public policymaking processes may be a bridge too far. We are not sure that a bridge between Northern Ireland and Scotland is the right solution to some problem that is not quite clear. It is potentially a minefield, and I mean that literally because the proposed route crosses the largest arms dump in this part of the world. It is literally in uncharted waters. I will spare the committee by not stretching my puns much further. We do not have businesses asking if we could please get this done. We have businesses telling us that they have pressing priorities, as Mr. Lynam alluded to earlier, concerning the planning process and that operating in a way that would be positive, constructive and for the benefit of all. They raise the national broadband plan, which would be very useful if it was finished, and the management of major infrastructural works, such as the national children's hospital. These are important projects and they deserve the very best treatment, including by businesses, to ensure they are brought to fruition for the benefit of all citizens. Perhaps in future there will be a bridge and perhaps new technologies will make the project more viable, but our 20th anniversary may have passed by the time that comes about.