Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 13 July 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement
Finance and Economics: Discussion
Professor John FitzGerald:
That does not help. There was a story in the last week that the UK and the EU have not reached agreement on cars going from the UK to the EU. If the batteries come from outside of UK, from China, and are fitted in the cars, then the cars will be subject to tariffs. If, however, the battery were fitted to the car in Northern Ireland, it would be a UK car and they would not be subject to the tariffs. There are these loopholes, but investors require certainty. We were at an ARINS session yesterday and people were talking about the uncertainty for business. The absence of an Executive does not help. In selling Ireland abroad, we need the Executive to turn up and say that Northern Ireland is a great place and it works.