Mr. Stephen Kelly:

I thank the Chair. I will try and capture everything that has not been answered and maybe reflect back on Deputy Smith's questions as well. I will begin with the cost of doing business. It is an absolute scandal that this week, the regulators North and South published the profitability report for all the generators on the all-island electricity market, and it showed that they made 28% net margin. Some €1.6 billion of a profit after tax was achieved by the energy generators on the island. That money has hurt. That was for the year 2021 so that was not even the worst year with regard to the energy spike. We are being robbed blind as businesses and domestic consumers because it is only us that puts money into that market. It is not government money, North, South, UK or European. It is Irish people, North and South, and money out of their own pockets that is paying that €1.6 billion worth of profit.

Unless we can fix that market, there are no economic ambitions that can be realised, North or South. We are the second most expensive energy market in Europe. When it comes to manufacturing businesses, that is the second largest input cost for many of those businesses. If we are serious about having any economic ambition on the island, we need to fix that market. It was designed in the interests of the energy generators. We warned about this at the time. It is a model taken from central Europe where there are massive amounts of interconnection and trades can flow really freely. It is not fit or suitable for this island, and as a result of the misdesign - that is the most inoffensive way I can describe what has happened there - we are all picking up the cost of that. It is a scandal, and it shocks me that people on this side of the Border do not make as big a fuss what is going on there than they do. It is impacting people. There are people cold this winter while there are people earning €1.6 billion profit from that marketplace in one year. It needs to be fixed.

On the labour issue, Mr. Neill has dealt with that, absolutely. What it equates to is about €21 per hour. It is not actually that this is a high salary level per sebut for organisations and businesses that are organised and structured in particular ways, it is what that means in terms of the differentials. If someone comes in at a UK level, for instance, on the national living wage, they are entitled to that wage, and in manufacturing very few people earn national living wage or well in excess of that. What happens is that every other band rises at the same time, and that is where the impact has a massive effect.

The £38,700 of salary cap level that is coming into play is one thing but more cruel is the fact that those people will not be able to bring their family members.

We are asking to people to travel from south-east Asia, South Africa, the Indian sub-continent and not bring their families with them. Irish people have travelled the world and wanted to bring their families with them for a reason. We are a family-based people and we have a sense of community about us. We are asking these people to leave where they are living, come here and not bring their dependants with them - their two-year old child who is not going to work, for example. The problem with the UK system is more than just the salary cap, it is the cruelty involved in it. It is also the latest piece of economic incoherence that the current UK Government is displaying towards business. It started with the Brexit stuff and it has continued on through a variety of economic choices that it has made. It is just one additional hurdle and barrier to the UK trying to meet any expectations that it has of growth.

Senator Currie mentioned her cousin who is a member of Manufacturing Northern Ireland and a great guy. He summed it up really simply for me. He said that if we do not have labour we cannot grow. If we do not grow we are going to die. Businesses across the island need the labour in order to grow, to meet the economic ambitions of the country and of those businesses.

On the education piece, there is incredible partnership developing, particularly in the Border regions between Ulster University and the Atlantic Technological University, ATU. This is largely through its campuses in Letterkenny and Sligo. That is exactly where we need this cross-Border co-operation to happen. It is fine on a government to government basis. We absolutely need that but it also needs to be driven down right through all our institutions and businesses. InterTradeIreland does a fantastic job of partnering businesses north and south to increase the flow of trade in both directions. Technology, information and research are being shared north and south by businesses and academic institutions. That is to our strength. The North's economy is different from that of the South. It is not a competitor of the South. We are in different spaces in terms of taxation, salaries, government structures and economic plans. We have a different offer which we can take to the world and the collective piece is incredibly attractive if we can get that pitch correctly done.

On the North South Ministerial Council, we would have been in a much better place through the entire Brexit process if those types of institutions were in play. Particularly now with the Windsor Framework and hopefully with the Assembly back up and running again, the issues and problems being identified can be easily resolved on a government by government basis and with the UK in terms of those further institutions, not just the North South institutions. We would greatly welcome them back. We have needed them on many occasions where we as a business have had to step into that space instead.