Niall Blaney (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Mr. O'Brien, Ms Gallagher and Mr. D'Arcy. It is good to have them present. I commend them on their approach to the Good Friday Agreement. The business perspective is very important to have a joined-up approach on an all-island basis. It is fresh. The reality is business in this country and in particular in Northern Ireland has led politics. A lot of business people have been leaders in society and have led politics in recent decades.

I was interested in some of the points that were made. I have made arguments in the past while meeting various groups in Northern Ireland about the young people who leave Northern Ireland for an education who stay in the UK for a job and then for life. That brain drain is wrong and it must be rectified. This approach helps to rectify it. I made a point one day to a group in Belfast that our model is a good one. It was said to me that a reason a lot of young people go to the UK to study is because some of the top universities in the world are there. I accepted that might be the case but what Northern Ireland graduates get in their pocket for their week's work is less and they are much worse off than our graduates. I put that down mainly to research and development. Do the witnesses have any statistics on the comparison between graduates in Northern Ireland compared with those in the rest of the island?

I welcome what has been said about balanced regional development. That is very important. The witnesses are correct that there must be a joined-up approach on policy. The difficulty at the moment is that Stormont is shut down and there is no way forward. When there was talk about launching an all-Ireland rail strategy, I was very adamant that it would be done in conjunction with both Ministers. Nichola Mallon got involved with the Minister, but we now have no Minister for transport in Northern Ireland. It is a difficulty that we cannot launch the report on the all-island strategy. I am in favour of an all-Ireland approach, but the policy must work as well. It is difficult to work around it.

On my travels, I can see that mid-Ulster and counties like Tyrone have evolved the business market in the past 30, 40 or 50 years. Belfast was once the powerhouse but Tyrone is very nearly the powerhouse now. It was not a decision driven by policy. Do the witnesses have any insights into that? What do they believe are the reasons it has happened, given it was not necessarily driven by political policy? Tyrone now accounts for 40% of the export trade. I would welcome the views of the witnesses on that.