Mr. Paul MacFlynn:

I will take the first part of that question and let Mr. McDonnell come in on the second part.

In terms of the all-island economy, we would all have reasons for focusing on particular areas, but if there were to be a deepening of the all-island economy, whether under the current constitutional arrangement or something further, the real prize lies in the underdeveloped areas. The Dublin-Belfast corridor, which is often given more prominence than it is due, is the easy part of economic development. There is a Derry-Donegal divide on many key economic metrics, and raising the game there is where the actual productivity leap could come about. In that context, two years ago, we were involved in a project with UCD called the working in Ireland survey, which looked at job quality. It was only focused on the Republic of Ireland in that particular wave, but our intention when we do it the next time is to extend the analysis to Northern Ireland and to be able to do the survey there. Focusing on job quality is one of the areas which has been missing in looking at differences between North and South and, in particular, being able to focus in on particular regions. We want to boost the sample so that it is able to tell us more about those particular regions. A lot of the headline productivity data at sectoral level throws up results that we scratch our heads about. Sometimes it is when we actually go down into individual experience of work in areas that we are able to figure out whether that is related to training, management structures and so on. That is where the most fruitful research is going to be next, in terms of figuring out how to maximise the all-island economy.

On the point about foreign direct investment, we cannot look at the experience of the Republic of Ireland and ignore FDI. It would be ridiculous to do so. It must be borne in mind that Northern Ireland performs quite well, although not compared with the Republic of Ireland, relative to other European countries in terms of the level of output that is accounted for by foreign firms. The problem is that the quality of the foreign direct investment in Northern Ireland is of a different order to what is in the Republic of Ireland. It has not had the same level of pre-development, particularly in terms of education. While we cannot explain it all by way of a lack of physical or human capital or infrastructure, there is a degree to which what has been coming into Northern Ireland in terms of FDI has been low-hanging fruit and that comes back to the point about political stability. It is about going for easy wins rather than a longer term investment. Foreign direct investment is important, but if we look at the stage that both economies on the island of Ireland are at, we cannot take too many lessons from the Republic of Ireland now. They are in two very different states and to simply try to cog the Republic on corporation tax, for instance, and expect the same kind of speed of development in Northern Ireland would be unwise. Mr. McDonnell will respond to the Deputy's last question.