Mr. John McGrane:

I thank the committee for inviting us here today. I am joined by my senior colleague, Mr. Paul Lynam, the director of policy at the British Irish Chamber of commerce and our policy associate, Mr. Cillian Molloy. I am privileged to be the director general of the British Irish Chamber of Commerce. Ten years ago today, the British Irish Chamber of Commerce was formed in this very town, in the important glow of the historic visit to Ireland by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, followed quickly thereafter, within months, by the equally historic visit of President Michael D. Higgins to Great Britain.We were then, have been since and remain today the only organisation of our type. We represent with equanimity the interests of businesses, employers and trade growers on both islands, for the betterment of trade and the increase of jobs, as well as the well-being, peace and prosperity that delivers for people throughout these islands, North, South, east and west. Our raison d'etre is to protect, champion and grow that trade between Ireland and the UK, a trade that pre-Covid-19 and Brexit was worth more than €90 billion a year and which sustained more than 400,000 jobs, evenly spread across the communities of Britain and Ireland.

We have no reason to think - despite intermittent administrative blips of which we certainly have one at the moment - that the underlying rationale for strong trade, employment, investment and community outcomes, North, South, east and west, is anything but vitally important to these two islands.

Before I speak on the potential and initial impact of Brexit, I want to give due credit, as we always do in our public engagements, to our civil servants and our public representatives for their diplomatic work, behind the scenes often, typically unacknowledged work with great people in public representation. It was a diplomatic triumph to secure a trade deal that many commentators had originally described as impossible to achieve. Late though it was, it does not matter, the deal was achieved by great public servant work. Because of this deal, there are now zero tariffs and zero quotas on trade between the UK and the EU, not least with Ireland, in all goods that comply with the appropriate rules of origin.

The EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, TCA, sets out preferential arrangements for the trade of services. I might mention the importance of another three letter CTA acronym, the actual CTA itself. The common travel area is equally important and is a privilege of citizenship on both of these islands. It allows for people movement. Critically, it also enables certain key activity in the services area, which is otherwise less comprehensively covered in the TCA and is less available to other member states.

However, having given that preface, there is no such thing as a good Brexit. The UK is out of the Single Market and the Customs Union. Therefore, the seamless trade enjoyed hitherto between Ireland and the UK for the last 40 plus years, has been disrupted and then some. While we must also bear in mind the unprecedented challenges that businesses are facing with Covid-19 - and indeed other things around us at this time - it is clear that the first four months of Brexit have indeed been challenging for UK-Ireland trade and all who derive their benefits from it.

Exports of goods to Great Britain are down 12% - I might qualify some of these numbers in a moment - and imports were down a worrying disclosed 53%. The agrifood sector is a particular concern, given its enormous importance to people on the island of Ireland, with exports down 35% and imports down a very considerable 65%. Those are the numbers at the start of the year and are there by comparison with comparable periods. The disparity between the significant, if not catastrophic, fall in exports per these numbers, compared to the collapse in imports, could be explained for the following reasons. First, there was a substantial amount of stockpiling, with which members will be familiar, taking place in advance of January, given the lateness of the deal in coming to fruition. However, we are not naive enough to suggest that that is the most significant reason for the reductions. Second, it was evident to us for some time that, generally speaking, Irish traders have been better prepared than their British counterparts. The consequence of this was some stockpiling and some change in the normal time flows of goods across the Irish Sea. Finally, a key factor in the disparity between Irish exports to the UK and UK exports to Ireland has been the temporary easements on customs procedures put in place by the UK Government. This is very important.

By comparison, Ireland was bound by the terms of the Union Customs Code from day one: 1 January 2021. It applied the full customs procedures, as is its obligation, to imports and exports. Our point here is that the UK has not effectively fully applied Brexit at this time to anything like the same degree as Ireland was bound to do. As a consequence, we saw significant disruption to supply chains, resulting in empty shelves in some of Ireland's most reputable supermarkets. Thankfully, it seems that most of these challenges have now been overcome. However, it is imperative that Irish exporters and UK importers use the time afforded to them by the UK Government's decision to extend customs easements until this October and, indeed, to January next in certain instances. Otherwise, we could face similar problems again in terms of disruption, as was seen in January and February of this year, as people had to get used to, without adequate preparation, some significant changes in logistics and trade flows as normal.

Furthermore, we do hope that the EU and the UK will conclude a comprehensive veterinary deal. This is a very important point, as such a deal will significantly reduce the frequency of physical checks, related costs, interruptions and delays required on goods of animal origin. The specialised committees established in the trade and co-operation agreement offer an opportunity to address potential future divergences and challenges within sectors between the UK and the EU.

Accordingly, the British Irish Chamber of Commerce is already reformulating and re-basing our sectoral policy fora. Senators Byrne and Chambers and some others will be familiar with our construct. We are a multi-sectorial chamber formed around member committees, representing all of the key industry and trade streams between these islands. We have re-based our sectoral policy committees to effectively input into these new EU-UK committees, so that we can effectively advocate for business and employment against unnecessary regulatory deviations that could lead to increased barriers to trade, and I might return to that.

Closer to home, we acknowledge the unprecedented efforts made by Departments, agencies, people like the committee members and our ports, operationally, in preparing for Brexit. Going forward, we have some suggestions that we would commend to consideration.

First, a UK-Ireland port and transit forum would be well worth establishing. This forum would be open to all major stakeholders in the UK and Ireland port and transit sector - the people at the sharp end of the logistics of trade. It would allow for streamlined communications, sharing of best practices, along with information exchange, and act as a platform to address issues of mutual concern. As an aside, business does not do politics and we certainly do not either. We just do solutions to practical, operational, real-life, ordinary, course-of-business situations that arise. These suggestions are absolutely in that pragmatic domain.

The second call-out we would have at present would be for a single access window for customs in order to facilitate in the burden on trade and customs agencies. To limit the bureaucratic burden, traders would only have to deal with one entity for all administrative, customs and licensing requirements. In the absence of such a one-stop shop, a designated senior point of contact should be allocated to the largest traders to avoid unnecessary delays. This simply responds to real-life learnings from pragmatic circumstances from the start of the year.

Third, Cork Port should be designated as a border inspection post, given the strategic importance of Dublin Port and the elevated importance of Rosslare Europort in a post-Brexit context. There is an opportunity to increase the connectivity of Ireland’s other ports as alternative gateways to trade and tourism. It is recommended that this approach be adopted to ensure no port is overburdened as a consequence of Brexit and that all of our national resources can be put to good effect for the benefit of all of the stakeholders involved.

As we turn our attention to the post-Brexit trading relationship between Ireland and the UK, I would first like to address the repeated mantra of diversification by some, as a panacea for Brexit. By this, we mean people who will say "Look, it is over with Britain, can we open up some new markets elsewhere?" While diversification and market expansion are important in responding to Brexit, and we fully support those values over time, the Chamber urges caution against over-simplification of such an approach. The UK market shares similar tastes to the Irish market. For instance, most of the cheddar cheese favoured by British people is actually produced from Irish cheese. Continental cheese producers do not produce cheddar cheese to the same formulation. This is just one of the many representative examples that most people were not aware of, that indicate the great favouring of Irish, high-quality food at very decent prices, that the British consumer prefers to purchase. As well as that food preference, obviously our two countries enjoy essentially the same language, mostly the same laws and similar cultural traits, in so many respects. Irish companies have invested considerable resources and time in gaining a foothold in the UK market that cannot be easily replicated in a European or other external market. As an aside, we are joined, if not at the hip, certainly by a very narrow body of water. Reflecting all of that, pretty well everything we do is similar to each other. We would be nuts not to follow a reasonably coherent and cohesive forward investment, job creation, trade derived well-being programme to each other's benefit, without in any way diluting our allegiance to the broad values and constitutional commitments of the ideals of the European Union.

In fact, the unique characteristics between Ireland and the UK may offer Irish businesses a strategic advantage over other EU exporters. Ireland also has the added advantage, especially in the trade of services, whereby the common travel area, to which I alluded, allows Irish people to freely travel and work in the UK and vice versa. Therefore, our message to businesses remains the same. They should have a plan to protect and grow their presence in the UK. While Brexit will slow trade growth, it will not diminish the UK’s importance as Ireland’s leading two-way trading partner.

We have noticed, even in the recent weeks, that our member businesses are responding to this message. They are getting information, making connections and looking to trade with the UK for the first time, or to expand their operations further. In our discussion, we can elaborate on the fact that every day, including this morning, we help firms on both sides of the Irish Sea - North, South, east and west - to open up specific pathways to new trade partnerships. These are basically new customer-supplier partnerships that we can help to find as a trade-promoting organisation, notwithstanding the inconveniences that have arisen from Brexit. Those firms deeply appreciate the work that we, uniquely, can make happen for them. As always, our members are getting a service that allows them to access valuable markets in the UK or Ireland, to grow their sales further and to consider the feasibility of establishing an appropriate operation in the opposite jurisdiction. For clarity, we never tell somebody to close in one market. We suggest they think about opening in the additional market in order that they can have a footprint, not only this island but in two operational jurisdictions and that they can have the best of both worlds, and they can.

We have also established a new online platform, Kmend, as in recommend, which gives businesses instant access to a constantly growing market of recommended trading partners, counter-party customers and suppliers. This platform, Kmend, was built in Dublin on the UCD campus using advanced artificial intelligence, AI, technology. It is continually sending new businesses opportunities to new customers and to trading firms on both islands, North, South, east and west. Members will hear much more about that in the weeks and months to come.

I will give just two examples of sectors that are primed for further collaborative growth between the UK and Ireland. The British Irish Chamber of Commerce has always said that Brexit should be a catalyst for greater collaboration in the vitally important area of higher education and research across these islands. Good progress has been made in this area. I pay tribute to Senator Byrne's direct contribution to our work from his previous role in the Higher Education Authority, HEA. We have made huge progress on this vital element. We have especially been exhorting for the creation and development of a North-South research corridor and research centre. We believe that this should be expanded to support researchers across all stages of their careers. We are hopeful that further collaborative models can be developed for England, Scotland and Wales. As an aside, if we were to pick one single element of public work that could secure the future, not just for people like us, but for younger people like Mr. Cillian Molloy, our young colleague, and for those after him, it would be to invest in all education, not just in higher education and research. All advanced and all contemporary cultures prove that point. We have the assets, we have wonderful talent and we have the connectivity, if we want to make it. We absolutely call that out.

There is also huge potential in the green agenda, especially with the hosting by the UK of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP26, in Glasgow in November. Taking offshore wind as an example, the UK has the most developed offshore wind sector in the world. Not many people know that. At the same time, Ireland has clearly unparalleled potential and ambition in the offshore wind sector. I might mention, if we had had this conversation five years ago, this point would have had a lot less relevance. What has happened in the last five years is that the technological advances have so reduced the cost of offshore wind installation, that this is now a major competitive opportunity on a global scale, both for Ireland and for the operators on these islands. The wind does not know where the Border is. Irish developers are keen to engage with UK expertise throughout the supply chain, as well as with their contracting partners. This is an area that has significant growth potential and we have already begun making important connections across the Irish Sea. I am glad to say that we are working with relevant government departments on both islands and, indeed, with the administration in Northern Ireland.

As well as realising the potential of trade across numerous sectors, there is significant potential in growing trade across the devolved nations of the UK. I am delighted to say that the British Irish Chamber of Commerce has been centrally involved in both the new Ireland-Scotland and Ireland–Wales bilateral accords and reviews, which are both designed to increase trade. We look forward to working with our partners in those administrations to implement these ambitious plans. We would like to see a similar initiative carried out between the Irish Government and the UK Government and we would happily support such an exercise. Clearly, some further water needs to pass under one or two bridges, but we absolutely believe that the logical potential for this lies ahead.

It would be remiss of us not to reference Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland protocol here today. In December, the British Irish Chamber of Commerce welcomed the agreement on the Northern Ireland protocol. It is our view that - while being far from perfect but well capable of being made perfect - this agreement offers a pathway for businesses in the North to maintain their trade with businesses in the South, with Great Britain and with the Single Market; one might say it is the golden ticket. We also believe this agreement should provide an opportunity for Northern Ireland to attract investment which, genuinely, will be the best of both worlds. A pragmatic approach is needed by both sides to ensure that an agreement that works in theory can also work in practice. We firmly believe that this can be achieved soon.

For the Northern Ireland protocol to work, North–South co-operation is essential. To this end, we would urge all participants to be proactive in all North-South bodies such as the North-South Ministerial Council. We would also maintain our view that if UK–Ireland trade is to grow and prosper, it is important that the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference, meets regularly and that business and civic society have an opportunity to feed into these important dialogues. I might mention, through our board membership of a wonderful organisation called the British-Irish Association, an apolitical, community-focused organisation chaired by our good friend Hugo MacNeill, that we look forward to being central to the bringing of business to the conversation, in ways that are perhaps overdue - for ideas, pragmatic engagement and investment, that business should be rightly asked to bring in the resolution of political challenge.

It is our view that despite recent challenges, with good political will and strong planning, UK–Irish trade can rebound for the greater prosperity of all people across these islands. However, we cannot be complacent. We must remind ourselves that with both Brexit and Covid-19 still unresolved, businesses have undergone unprecedented challenge. It is essential that businesses across these islands are enabled, allowed and encouraged to operate in an economic environment that allows them to do what they do best - to create trade, to generate investment, to grow jobs and well-being and to grow with responsibility as well as opportunity. Any temptation to place the economic burden on the shoulders of businesses has to be resisted. Equally, business knows exactly the part that it is rightly obliged and expected to play.

I thank Senators again for their time; my colleagues and I are happy to take any questions they may have. Go raibh maith agaibh go léir.