Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

On the point about social dialogue, in IBEC we have been strong advocates for two elements of this. One is an effective social dialogue model in the Irish economy. Right now, we do not have that.

We have had some advancements through the Labour Employer Economic Forum in which we work with the trade unions and Government to address labour market issues. There have been some successes from that. We made particular contributions through that process during Covid. We were able to agree protocols to allow people to continue to work safely in essential operations and facilitate people's return to work through the various phases of Covid. That forum is significant. We are looking at things like pensions. We are looking at the all-island labour market through a subgroup of the forum with the trade unions, including trade unions from Northern Ireland.

That has been quite positive but in many ways it signals the missed opportunity. We have been strong advocates for some time for a genuine all-island social dialogue model to address these issues through the social partnership structure. Much is happening at a European level in terms of the minimum wage directive, which will impact on consultation of employees and so on. Significant and fast-moving developments are happening there. We see significant opportunity in the all-island social dialogue model. We are proponents of it because we see the benefits from the limited structure of the Labour Employer Economic Forum and the all-island dimensions within that. We would like to see that broadened out.

Mr. Hazzard raised an important point on sustainability. Ms Hanna asked about the spillover benefits we are not seeing come through in the all-island economy. One where we will continue to see traction for a number of reasons is the sustainability agenda. IBEC members and other businesses in Europe are entering a new phase of sustainability reporting. We have a lot of new legislation coming from Europe such as the corporate sustainability reporting directive and the corporate due diligence reporting directive. These will accelerate how companies think about and report on sustainability. One of the things companies find most challenging is the scope tree of the wider ecosystem and their supply chains. Many companies are looking at making their supply chains more sustainable in the broadest sense. People tend to think of the environmental element of that, but the social, human rights and worker rights dimensions are becoming incredibly important for business. We already see our members looking at restructuring their supply chains to drive for a stronger sustainability agenda in their operations. That will bring opportunities for the all-island economy. We will see positive spillovers emerge and sustainability will be a catalyst for much of that.