Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I am sharing my time with Mr. Hazzard. I welcome all the witnesses here today. I value their contribution. It has been a most interesting discussion. They will know this discussion is taking place in the context of us following on from the Seanad discussions on our constitutional future. This committee, being about the implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, is obviously examining the different factors. We are starting first with the economy, the discussion on which the witnesses are contributing to and I thank them for that. We will go on to health and education, climate change and human rights and all those things, looking at the impact of reunification and what the constitutional future might be around those things. In the absence of the Government doing this, it is a way for this committee collectively to have a structured dialogue around these issues.

I hear what Professor Fitzgerald is saying. When a referendum is called, it will be too late to have the discussion. Then there is a panicked discussion and we could end up in a Brexit situation again where people do not have the knowledge. The question people want to ask is whether they will be better off in the event of constitutional change, whether their family will be better off and if they will be better off in the future. That is what we are trying to answer here.

What really strikes me from listening to the contributions is the economic opportunity cost of partition. You might say looking at the South as a whole that we are okay. In the North there is obviously a deeper discussion to be had about the failures there. As somebody who comes from the west and north-west region, I am looking at a region that is in the bottom 7% of the EU competitiveness index with regard to infrastructure. The situation as it is at present is not working for us either. That is part of why I, coming from the west and north west, want things to change around that. Rather than looking at the two separate things, I want to envisage something new and something different where we have an opportunity.

Something really struck me a couple of weeks ago when we had a session on taxation and welfare. The witnesses at that meeting pointed out that we have never stood back as a State and looked at the kind of structures and systems we want that will underpin our values as an Irish nation. We have not had the opportunity to do that but we now have the opportunity to do it. That is why, collectively, these discussions are important in that sense.

I want to ask a few different things. My first question relates to FDI. That is one of the biggest differences between North and South as we are. Looking at the key drivers there, we have had a fairly good discussion around education being a driver. What other things do we need in terms of FDI? What might FDI look like in the event of reunification or constitutional change? What might the EU input be? How might we then be within the EU as a whole, not just for goods but also for services? What might that mean? What may we expect from the EU in terms of economic interventions? What might it look like with regard to supply chains and procurement opportunities around that? There is potential, as I said, in the north west and the Border region. Would the economic potential of the North, if realised, have spillover economic benefits for the north west and the Border regions?

We touched slightly on ATU and the possibilities there with the Magee campus of Ulster University. Coming from Mayo, we have the Castlebar campus of ATU and there is the possibility of linking that up with Magee. I welcome the recent investment in Magee concentrating on medicine and those opportunities that would deal with our labour force issues. Around the labour force issues, would we not be better off having a pool of labour from a population of 7 million rather than a population of 5 million?

On education and higher education, I welcome that it is now explicitly set out in legislation, under the HEA Bill, that each of the higher education institutions, HEIs, is tasked with improving North-South enrolment. I welcome what Trinity College Dublin has done in recent times in setting a target to double that. I know the figures are low but it has set a target to double its enrolment. Maybe the witnesses could speak to that.

We have a wonderful education system here but we have to be mindful that there is a €307 million gap in funding for higher education. We must not lose sight of that but we also have opportunities with the National Training Fund and the over €1 billion that is there. Is there any reason we could not have an apprenticeship that is partly on the Shankill Road and partly in Castlebar, for instance? What are the blocks stopping us doing that?

I am sorry; I know I am going on a bit. Maybe I will leave it at those questions but I think the witnesses can tell that there is huge excitement around what we can create here together. We have wonderful expertise on this island across all kinds of disciplines. We only have to look at the all-Ireland cancer research. What is being done there is absolutely fabulous. If the witnesses could speak to a couple of those things in terms of our opportunities, that would be great.