Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

I will comment on some of the questions and I might ask Ms Gallagher to come in on the conversation as well. She has been capturing stories on business leaders across the island. The economics in the report are important, but one of the things we want to achieve through this initiative is to bring to life some of the real-life stories the Senator mentions. We have been capturing that in different ways. I might ask Ms Gallagher to talk a little bit about that.

Senator Blaney raised some very important points about the opportunities that are now available for graduates and young people on the island. He mentioned research and development. IBEC, as part of a separate piece of work we are doing with the ESRI, is for the first time building a macroeconomic model for Northern Ireland and for the island of Ireland for the all-island economy. That we have not had a sufficiently robust macroeconomic model for Northern Ireland or the all-island economy has been a significant gap in policymaking and analysis. For the first time, that will allow us to model a range of policy options and scenarios.

I will talk a little bit about the area of innovation, research and development, and productivity, because when we look at the all-island economy, the biggest challenge we see, ultimately, is one of productivity for Northern Ireland. It is substantially behind the Irish economy. In the report, we point to the evolution of the business model here, which even in the past decade has been quite spectacular. Young people coming out of university very often have access to what we regard as best-in-class or world-class jobs here in Dublin or elsewhere in Ireland that would be on a par with roles in some sectors in London, for example. Many young people no longer have to travel to London or another recognised major global capital to get leading-edge roles. They are happening here. That has been the transformation.

We have a superb history of foreign direct investment but it has been a constant evolution. Even many of the international companies that came here 40 years ago for a manufacturing base in some cases have their global centres of excellence for research and development and innovation on the island. We are seeing this in analytics, across life sciences, medical technology, in the pharma sector and in the indigenous food sector. In some sectors, some of what is happening here is on a par with any place in the world, so graduates can get the very best roles. They do not need to leave the island. That is one of the things we point to in terms of the economic opportunities for Northern Ireland's school leavers: that there is an educational opportunity leading to an employment opportunity on the island of Ireland and that many of those roles are on a par with anything that could be achieved elsewhere in the United Kingdom, for example.

The second part of the question was on the delivery of an all-island infrastructure and rapid efficient rail. With modern ways of working, it is no longer a challenge to be based a couple of hundred miles from an employer's office. It is opening up a whole new swathe of opportunities. I emphasise that the business model we have now is completely different from what it was even ten years ago in terms of the quality of the roles. Research and development have become much more embedded and the productivity and performance is much higher. That is a key distinction with what we see across the Northern Ireland economy.

I might ask Ms Gallagher to comment on some of the stories we have heard from businesses themselves in terms of what the stability of the Belfast Agreement-Good Friday Agreement has meant.