Seán Haughey (Dublin Bay North, Fianna Fail)
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I thank both organisations for their interesting and informative contributions. We are grateful for the work they do and for briefing us here this morning. Obviously, it is in all of our interests that the economy of Northern Ireland would prosper from the point of view of peace and stability.

It is important that there is political stability in Northern Ireland and that is why it is so welcome that the Good Friday Agreement and the institutions are up and running again. This links into my first question, which is for Ms Hearty from InterTradeIreland. It is one of the six North-South implementation bodies. How does this work in practice? It has an important political role. The organisation was established under an international agreement. Does that bring added responsibility or does it have any practical implications? Does the body just get on with its work or is it very conscious that it has been charged with responsibilities as part of a political project, so to speak? I am just interested in hearing about how it works for the organisation being one of the North-South implementation bodies.

Turning to Invest Northern Ireland, this is a question for Mr. Harper. How is the appointment of Joe Kennedy III as the US Special Envoy and economic adviser going in respect of attracting US investment into Northern Ireland? I know there have been high-profile events and so forth, but I am interested in hearing the views of Mr. Harper on how the appointment is working out. A question also for Mr. Harper is on how the economy of Northern Ireland is doing, generally speaking, from the perspective of economic growth, exports, employment, etc. Again, there seems to have been paralysis in government for so long. I wonder if this has implications for the economy of Northern Ireland. The public finances are in a very serious condition. I am interested in hearing how Mr. Harper feels the major economic indicators for Northern Ireland show it doing.

Northern Ireland has the best of all worlds, having access to the EU Single Market and the UK internal market. Mr. Harper said that more can be done and the potential in this regard needs to be worked out more. Could the Governments of Ireland and the United Kingdom, along with the Assembly in Northern Ireland, be doing more to sell the benefits of the Windsor Framework? It would be an important thing to do, so I wonder if more can be done by all the actors to highlight the advantages of the Windsor Framework.