Dr. Anthony Soares:

This comment may be beyond the remit of the committee but as the Centre for Cross Border Studies, the nature of our organisation means we work on both sides of the Border, in both jurisdictions, and we also work within an east-west relationship. We are talking about opportunities for this side of the Border in terms of attracting lost market share from the UK and getting jobs into Ireland. Some of those jobs could perhaps go from North of the Border to South of the Border. There may be a couple the other way, such as a call centre moving from Dundalk going to Newry. It is part of this discussion we are having. Discomfort has been caused by the UK referendum and we are now talking about the two jurisdictions on the island of Ireland perhaps setting up to compete against each other, which puts paid to some of the talk around an all-island economy or all-island supply chains. Those will become more difficult to achieve. Exporting companies, small and medium enterprises etc. on this side of the Border saw some elements of their final product coming from the UK and, in many cases, North of the Border. This is just to voice that discomfort and sense of concern in terms of economic policy. As we are discussing this, we are talking about divergence in terms of economic policy and the directions being taken North and South of the Border.