Dr. Tom McDonnell:

I will be quick. We are indeed developing those policies, and our goal is, by late 2024 or early 2025, to have developed that economic model and policy set for the Republic of Ireland and for Northern Ireland, but it is work ongoing.

As Mr. Mac Flynn says, because the starting position for both economies is different in 2023, the policy solutions are not the same on both sides of the Border. There is a significant role for educational reform in Northern Ireland, in particular. The current structure there is not doing a good job to develop human capital, particularly for disadvantaged groups. As Mr. Mac Flynn says, the issue in the Republic of Ireland is that we are overqualified in certain cohorts and have an undersupply of people with qualifications in other areas, such as construction. In the Republic, it might be more about reforming whereas in the North, it might require more radical reform of the education of children. In the Republic, it may be more about reform at third level. In both cases, it will be about reforming the early stages and eliminating childhood poverty, which is the biggest barrier of all to educational performance and human capital development.

In both jurisdictions, it is about a focus on job quality, trying to understand what that means and developing a menu or a dashboard for what it means, and using those as the policy goals. Employment per seis not the fundamental issue or the quantum at the moment. The quality of employment in Northern Ireland and the Republic is problematic. While Northern Ireland trails the Republic in productivity, the domestic economy in the Republic also does quite poorly relative to western Europe. We need to understand what is happening there and whether there are things we can do. The answers are often very complex. For example, Ireland does poorly in labour force participation among people experiencing disabilities. We are an outlier in that regard. Part of our response will be about understanding what we can do and why the Republic is different.

There are no ten or 12 bullet points we can give the committee today. We are, however, developing a model that is designed not for 2023 but instead considers what we want to look like in 25 years' time.That is why we talk about policies around educational reform and consider whether they will manifest as benefits for up to 20 years.