Rose Conway-Walsh: Reunification Must Build All-Ireland Economy

Thank you for allowing me an extra minute from yours, but I would say Tánaiste, I think Michael Collins would be pleased with you today. I thank you for allowing us, you know, for allowing the government time to discuss such an important issue. I also want to acknowledge the work of Eimear Currie that she has consistently done in this space, but I would need much longer than three minutes to discuss the financial, the fiscal implications of a united Ireland, such is the depth and the breadth of the work that's already done, and I want to commend all those who have done that. But leaving all politics aside, the economic benefits of reunification present unprecedented opportunities for sustainable growth, and as we prepare for constitutional future of this Ireland, one of the key priorities must be creating an all-Ireland competitive and conducive environment for foreign direct investment and indigenous businesses. The future prosperity of Ireland is dependent on government policies that address and invest in the key drivers of FDI, of human capital, of infrastructure, of political stability, tax certainty, and as well as the digitisation and decarbonisation. The very open nature of the Irish economy and the over-reliance on FDI in a small number of large US firms exposes an economic vulnerability that covers an underlying deficit of 13 million, and I see this way, with an all-Ireland approach, that we can really tackle that properly. So this vulnerability should be tackled by taking an all-Ireland approach to investing in different levels of education and mitigating against the socio-economic barriers to education. A culture of lifelong learning must be encouraged by removing financial barriers and investing in childcare and public services across the island. Fulfilling investment commitments as outlined in the National Development Plan and ensuring timely delivery of infrastructure, such as all-Island transport, telecommunications, utilities, housing and energy, are fundamental to the whole island's prosperity in the future. As an all-Island development agency, I think an all-Island development agency is critical to this prosperity, competing for investment from multinational companies based on five interlinked pillars of growth, transformation regions, sustainability and impact, as promoted by the IDA, is necessary to compete on a global stage. One of the key benefits of reunification would be the access to human capital across the island and both jurisdictions combined. We spoke about this again with the IBEC this morning and I want to commend the IBEC and the ESRI for the work that they have done on the macroeconomic model there, but that is hugely important and that can solve that issue. I would ask you in the interim to focus on what needs to be done there as well. I am asking that the Government, through the Shared Island Unit, also provide funding for student places for students from the jurisdiction here. We have encouraged that you and I had written into the legislation to encourage student mobility across the island, but I am asking that the Shared Island Unit would intervene there for funding for students from here going to Queen's and going to Ulster University as well. I just want to say around the data, the NI Executive should work with the ONS, the HMRC and the ISRA to improve the data on tax receipts in the north. This would help to provide more reliable estimates and forecasting. It is about us having the data to be able to do the accurate forecasting that we need to do as well.