Dr. Alan Barrett:

Picking up on the very interesting question on the Border region, there are a range of interesting possibilities here. To draw out some of the things we have been discussing in the diversion of trade and this new openness, if we can put it like that, in the possibilities of trade on the island, it is certainly possible that would have a generalised effect across the Border and at least in the Border region. Much of the Border region is rural in nature and has other disadvantages that are always going to be difficult, in a sense, to offset.

For many years - I am sure everybody in the room is probably familiar with projects such as these - there were projects such as the Dublin-Belfast economic corridor, where, as long as I have been discussing economics in Ireland, there was always a view that there was great potential to develop the corridor between Belfast and Dublin, being somewhat focused on Dundalk. Nevertheless, if you have seen the presentations and have looked at the actual population volume in the area, with proper transport links and everything like that, you can imagine that what we are discussing and describing today would very much give impetus to something like that. Between Letterkenny and Derry, for example, where there are substantial towns and urban areas, there is the idea, in a cross-Border sense, of a critical mass of activity in these areas. You can almost imagine them becoming growth nodes, if I can use that kind of phrase.

The hope would be that there would be positive economic benefits spread throughout the region, but it would be a bit unrealistic to think this would be completely the case, in the same way that growth does not happen uniformly across regions in any shape or form. I will give those two examples, however, as being areas where real possibilities would exist.