Professor John FitzGerald:

The Republic held it up. I was on the Northern Ireland Authority for Energy Regulation. When I was there, I was promised the interconnector would be started in 2007. We are now in 2024. I think the problems are now more in Northern Ireland than in the Republic, but that project is urgent. The energy strategy in Northern Ireland published in 2021 did not include Belfast Port. A story in today's newspapers in the Republic focuses on a €20 billion investment in offshore wind in the next 20 years. Whether that happens or not is another matter. We do not have a port capable of dealing with this. Belfast Port is the obvious one. I do not know why this was not included in the strategy. There is an obvious opportunity here. Northern Ireland could actually reduce the costs for the Republic of rolling this out if Belfast Port could do the job.

It is about sitting back and asking what we can do now on an all-island basis. This may or may not prepare us for unity but there are opportunities. The energy and water systems in Northern Ireland have huge problems. I was appointed by the Minister for the Economy, Conor Murphy, to the independent water review panel in 2007. We reported and said that Northern Ireland needed water charges, and he and the Assembly rejected it. That is fine. I had the unfortunate misfortune, however, to go to the Treasury in London to discuss the issue. I was treated like dirt because I came from Northern Ireland. My previous encounters with the Treasury in London were in the context of being with the ESRI in Dublin and we were treated with respect.