Mr. Glyn Roberts:

I will respond on that and then, unfortunately, I have to go. The Senator made some good points. Fixing the broken, antiquated system of business rates is a bigger priority than corporation tax. In the medium to long term, we need to address the fact that we have two different rates of corporation tax on this island. However, having an antiquated, expensive, outdated business rates system must be the top priority for any incoming Executive. In the recent budget, the Chancellor gave independent retailers and hospitality businesses a 75% reduction in England, but we did not get it in Northern Ireland. It went straight into the black hole of our budget situation in the North.

We need to address this as a priority and it is something that can be fixed. It is a fully devolved matter. If we get movement on business rates and on the other challenges facing our members, I think this would be a good bit of work done in the early stages. Equally, as well, we have outlined different ideas about how we can use our rates system in terms of start-ups and also scale-ups. The scale-up element is so important. How can we use our rates system to incentivise businesses to make the next move and to scale up? For instance, if a business invests in new technology and new staff and increases its size, then I think such an enterprise should be able to get help with its rates to do that. As I said earlier, this is about turning the rates system from a disabler into an enabler. We saw how this worked during the pandemic, so there is a lot a new Stormont administration could do in its first 100 days.

What we have to get, though, are the institutions back on a sustainable and affordable basis. Huge challenges are facing our public sector. We have significant challenges around public sector pay that we need to address. If Stormont does come back, it cannot come back in the way it was before. It must be sustainable. It must operate like any other coalition government, admittedly in the unique circumstances we have here. It must do things like a budget and a programme for government. It must do all these things. It must have proper collective responsibility. From the perspective of the business community, we just do not want to be consultees. We want to be partners in building this new Northern Ireland, including in changing how we do things on this island as well. Alas, I have to go, but we will be very happy on a future occasion to revisit this topic and to meet with the committee again. I hope to do another event in Dublin at some point in 2024, so we will definitely be in touch with the committee again.