Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

Our observation is that investment levels in the economy of Ireland have been spectacular if we look at any metric. We could argue that GDP is the best metric for measuring what is happening in the economy. If we look at physical investment in industries, we have never had a period such as the past decade. It has been an absolute golden era in terms of the scale of investment coming in. It would not be uncommon for us to work with a business looking at a scale of multibillion euro or dollar investment in a single site. Investment has been happening at a level of sophistication and scale we have not seen before. This has been evolving over the past two and a half decades.

Our observation is probably that Northern Ireland's economy has not benefited to the same degree as the economy of Ireland. With regard to how to address this, several times in my remarks I touched on the fact that businesses are looking at drivers of investment in a very different way. Tax is nowhere near as significant as it was in the past. Traditional large urban centres are not as significant. It is all about the availability of labour. We are constantly in global business cycles. It very much looks like the downturn will not be as significant as has been feared. The number one issue for our members in terms of expansion and growth is talent availability. We know the housing constraint will be a significant factor in this.

Any region, whatever the coherence or catchment, that can present itself as a talent opportunity will prosper. This will also be the case if we can get coherence for a region on a cross-Border level. It goes back to skills strategies, regional skills strategies and regional skills and talent strategies on a cross-Border basis. It is about demonstrating that talent will be available for the companies, either indigenous or multinational, that want to grow in a particular region. This is where we see the main opportunity. Our earlier comments are very much a reflection of the fact that the investment dividend has not been equally shared throughout the island. There is no question that the scale of prosperity seen in Ireland has far outweighed the prosperity benefit, albeit very real and tangible, that has been experienced in Northern Ireland.