Mr. Aidan O'Kane:

I can respond to Senator Currie.

There is quite a bit to unpack but they are great questions and comments. Regarding the question about the opportunity for the north west to access the dual markets, the essential piece of that is the ability to staff and resource those opportunities with the people residing in the north west. Derry is the fourth largest city on the island and the second largest in Northern Ireland but it does not even have the footfall to attract major FDI by itself. Regarding the talent pool in the Donegal-Tyrone hinterland, I agree there are opportunities there if we get this right and harmonise in some sort of way to allow access on both sides of the Border to the resources, skills and talent to sustain and attract FDI and help to build the start-up community, which is really important for our economy in the north west. FDI companies do their homework before investing. There is no doubt about that. Companies like Seagate do not accidentally set up in Derry without taking a look at where its talent will come from and how it accesses the skills. There is opportunity there. The Senator is right that the tax strategy group does not take any of those matters into consideration. In many ways, it is very one-dimensional regarding what it concluded.

In and around the equity piece raised by Senator Currie, there are findings and we worked with Grant Thornton on this. We have discovered that a worker earning £30,000 and subject to UK tax actually has less net income than a worker subject to Irish tax. It demonstrates that a wider investigation into the tax impact needs to be considered prior to arriving at any conclusion that workers with UK employers are subject to a more advantageous tax system. It is just not correct. It is not complete. It is not sufficient to conclude that a more beneficial tax system is the only factor as well that will impact a worker resident and working in the State for a UK employer and make him or her better off financially. Studies have been done. A study was carried by Seamus McGuinness and Adele Bergin entitled "Who is Better off? Measuring Cross-border Differences in Living Standards, Opportunities and Quality of Life on the Island of Ireland". There is really no threat to the State or Revenue regarding the matters raised relating to equity.

Regarding competition, it is a bit more difficult to really get to the nub of what the tax strategy group is referring to with regard to any solid evidence that this would be an issue. It is more protectionist regarding how any changes may or may not impact. The tax strategy paper briefly discussed the impact on employers in the State of a more favourable UK tax system available to residents working in the State and concluded that extending the concession puts employers in the State at a competitive disadvantage. We do not agree with that based on the evidence available to us. The north-west city region is a prime example where we have really strong collaboration, which has been alluded to. We have the likes of Catalyst, which is a Northern Ireland entity, setting up conversations about establishing in Letterkenny. These are the things we want to encourage. A prosperous Donegal is a prosperous Derry and vice versa. It is about the north west region.