Dr. Tom McDonnell:

There are some practical steps. An obvious one involves reform of the education system in Northern Ireland, such as getting rid of the eleven-plus, having mixed ability schools, not throwing people away at the age of 11 and not having a leaving certificate, effectively, at the age of ten. That would be an important one. It is about retaining people in school through secondary. In third level, it means building up the university sector in Northern Ireland, providing incentives to encourage people to stay there rather than leaving for Great Britain and-or providing incentives to encourage those people to come back to Northern Ireland. On fiscal policy, greater spending on enabling infrastructure is also important. That has implications for either current spending or tax policy. It brings us back to the conversation we have been having. It involves building up an innovation system and breaking the bad equilibrium, which Mr. Mac Flynn discussed, with low levels of qualification, meaning there is low valued added industry, which in turn means people have no incentive to get high levels of education. You have to break that somehow. That requires a radical shift in policy, probably starting at university level, trying to develop high potential startups and providing incentives for people in Northern Ireland to do STEM. That could include paying them to do those courses in college and, if necessary, to stay in school at the age of 17 and 18. It is about encouraging people to do everything they can to build up their human capital, which has positive externalities for the rest of society. They do not get all the benefits; they spill over to everyone else. There is an argument for going hard at that. Those are practical steps. They may be slightly unexpected answers but they are the types of practical steps one could take. The results could take a generation to manifest in getting productivity levels up to where they might be in the rest of western Europe. That is okay. It is about catching up. You cannot catch up in a single year. You have to be willing to do the hard yards. It is about strategic policy rather than tactical shifts on a year-to-year basis.

Political stability is another obvious matter that might hold back investment in Northern Ireland. If you do not know what is going to happen, why on earth would you invest in a place when you do not know what its policies will be or what its political structure will even be 12 months down the line? Investors want stability and certainty. It is extremely important if you are to make those investment decisions.