Joint Committee on European Union Affairs debate -
Wednesday, 9 Oct 2024

On behalf of the committee, I welcome our visitors, namely, Ms Margaret Hearty, Dr. Stuart Mathieson and Mr. Martin Robinson of InterTradeIreland; and Mr. Steve Harper of Invest NI. This is part of a two-stage meeting to discuss EU-UK trade and to look at how that is developing in the context of which members are aware. Before we begin with the witnesses' presentations and the more formal meeting, there is some housekeeping I must do in respect of a privilege statement.

Witnesses are reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice that they should not criticise or make charges against any person or entity by name, or in such a way as to make him, her or it, identifiable or otherwise engage in speech that might be regarded as damaging to the good name of the person or entity. Therefore, if their statements are potentially defamatory in relation to an identifiable person or entity, they will be directed to discontinue your remarks. It is imperative that they comply with any such direction.

Members are also reminded of the long-standing parliamentary practice to the effect that they should not comment on, criticise or make charges against a person outside of the Houses or an official either by name or in such a way as to make him or her identifiable. I remind members of the constitutional requirement that they must be physically present within the confines of the Leinster House complex to participate in public meetings. I cannot permit a member to participate where they are not adhering to this requirement. Therefore, any member attempting to participate from outside the precincts is asked not to. We will now begin. I call Ms Hearty to make the opening statement.

I thank the Cathaoirleach and members of the joint committee for the invitation to discuss EU-UK trade and InterTradeIreland’s role in supporting businesses across the island through the changing trading conditions of recent years. InterTradeIreland’s unique contribution to EU-UK trade is focused on accelerating cross-Border trade and collaboration.

As members are aware, InterTradeIreland is one of the six North-South implementation bodies established in 1999 under strand two of the Good Friday Agreement. Our remit is to support and develop all-island trade and economic co-operation. We support businesses across the island to grow through cross-Border exporting, innovating, collaborating, and securing investment.

Since 1998, we have directly supported more than 60,000 businesses, generating €1.8 billion in business development value. Last year alone, we supported more than 2,600 businesses in every county on the island and in just over a year of operation, our new trade hub has supported 11,000 businesses. In 1998, cross-Border trade was worth approximately €2 billion and by 2022, this had grown to a record level of over €12 billion with current figures suggesting that this will be sustained across 2023 and 2024. Cross-Border trade has expanded across almost every sector in the past few years in both goods and services with trade in goods alone growing more than 30% in each direction between 2021 and 2022.

InterTradeIreland continually monitors trading conditions, especially through our all-island business monitor, AIBM. This unique, all-island survey speaks to 750 businesses across the island every quarter allowing us to stay on the pulse of business sentiment, profitability and current challenges and to track how firms are responding to changing trading conditions. This means we can see and respond quickly to emerging issues and opportunities. Our all-island business monitor shows that businesses that export cross-Border outperform those that do not, enjoy higher growth and are more resilient.

From our 2024 quarter 2 results, 47% of cross-Border traders said they were in growth compared to 28% of non-exporters, 38% have increased sales versus 23%, and 37% reported profits of over 10% compared to 26% of non-exporters.

The cross-Border market provides an obvious first step for businesses that want to explore their export journey and build their capability. Our research shows that more than 75% of businesses that start exporting cross-Border go on to export off the island, which is exactly what is required.

Significant opportunity remains for InterTradeIreland to increase the number of cross-Border exporters and the volume of cross-Border trade. We have developed a comprehensive pathway of trade supports and programmes designed to help small businesses to take advantage of the opportunity to sell cross-Border for the first time and enable existing exporters to unlock new sales and sourcing opportunities across the entire island. This includes supports to appoint sales resources, exploit all-island public procurement opportunities, and access our in-market supply chain specialists.

InterTradeIreland has a unique connecting role. This allows us to facilitate collaboration between businesses, industry bodies and policymakers North and South, and especially to identify opportunities where an all-island approach can accelerate economic growth and contribute to the delivery of shared economic policy objectives for our partner departments, the Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland and the Department of Enterprise, Trade, and Employment. This was clearly demonstrated through our Brexit advisory service. After the UK voted to leave the EU, we undertook extensive research to identify the issues for cross-Border trade to inform policymakers and to guide and support businesses to understand and adapt to new trading regulations. Some 60,000 users benefitted from our free and impartial advice, while more than 4,000 businesses used our Brexit advisory voucher service. Through our latest all-island business monitor one third of businesses tell us they are not affected by Brexit, while almost half report that they have largely or fully adapted to the new post-Brexit trading conditions. However, when asked about the Windsor Framework, 60% of businesses across the island indicate that they have no knowledge of the requirements that the current changing trading conditions have for their business.

Recognising this uncertainty and continued need for information and support, in 2023 InterTradeIreland launched our new trade hub. This is a valuable online resource that provides up-to-date information, advice and practical support to enable businesses to understand and adapt to the changes, and take advantage of new trade opportunities. Our trade hub provides answers and specialist advice to businesses on customs, VAT, regulation, and cross-Border employment. The trade hub includes an interactive chat bot, telephony support and bespoke one-to-one support to enable businesses understand the specific issues and challenges and take practical steps to address these. To date almost 11,000 businesses have used that support and we are happy to share some examples of these with members during the question and answer session.

We also commission specific research to ensure that we are doing as much possible to support businesses and our partners to grow cross-Border trade and collaboration. We are almost finished a significant research project that looks at changing trading conditions and the impact on business. We would be happy to share the report with the committee later this month when it is published. I thank the Cathaoirleach for the opportunity to address the committee. I hope that this is helpful and my colleagues and I are very happy to take any questions.

I thank the committee for inviting me here today. I will start by giving a brief introduction. Invest Northern Ireland is the economic development agency for Northern Ireland. We are a non-departmental public body with the Department for the Economy as our sponsoring Department. We are charged with delivering the Department’s economic policy that is within our remit and the Minister’s economic priorities which are: creating good jobs; raising productivity; promoting regional balance; and reducing carbon emissions. We do this by increasing the level of entrepreneurship, by supporting the creation of jobs with high value wages and salaries, by increasing exports, by encouraging innovation in all its aspects, and by attracting inward investment.

My position is executive director for the international business group and I have responsibility for exports, inward investment and skills. Following the UK’s decision to leave the European Union in 2016, businesses faced a period of uncertainty while the UK and EU negotiated new trading arrangements and, subsequently, as they navigated the new arrangements put in place as a result of the Northern Ireland protocol and latterly the Windsor Framework. With the UK and EU both agreeing to respect the principles of the Good Friday Agreement, including the commitment to there being no hard border on the island of Ireland, Northern Ireland has found itself in a unique position with what we refer to as dual market access, which is access for goods to the EU market on the same basis as pre-EU exit, and also having unfettered access to the UK’s internal market. This is a really unique selling point which I will come to later. We do, however, acknowledge that in the post-EU exit era there are challenges for Northern Ireland businesses on top of the economic shocks brought about by Covid and the impact of rising global costs.

As we all know and understand, the movement of goods between Northern Ireland and the EU continues on the same basis as before the EU exit. However a significant proportion of EU businesses are unaware of this. Many have assumed that as part of the UK Northern Ireland is subject to the same trading arrangements as the rest of the UK, which means trading under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement. This is not the case and Northern Ireland’s position is different from the rest of the UK. However, there may be buyers and suppliers in the EU who have chosen not to do business with Northern Ireland companies due to their perceived administrative burden of trading under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement or under WTO terms.

There is anecdotal evidence that some EU businesses may have a limited awareness of the Northern Ireland protocol and Windsor Framework and how this relates to trade between both regions. I believe there are missed opportunities by both Northern Ireland and EU businesses as a result of this. There is also some anecdotal evidence that Northern Ireland businesses may not be fully aware of the competitive advantage they may have over GB and EU-based competitors servicing these markets. By this I mean that for Northern Ireland companies supplying goods to either GB or the EU, nothing has really changed for them in terms of how they move these goods into those respective markets. It is business as usual. Compare that to their competitors in GB and the EU who now have to trade with each other under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement or WTO rules.

There have also been issues with the movement of goods from Great Britain to Northern Ireland since the EU exit and although much has been done to reduce the level of bureaucracy and friction on this trade route by both the EU and UK, primarily through the Windsor Framework, frictions do remain and the UK Government has recently delayed the introduction of new rules for the movement of parcels from Great Britain to Northern Ireland. Further work is required to ease the burden on business of trading in the UK’s internal market.

I will return now to our dual market access proposition. I believe this is truly unique as Northern Ireland can offer frictionless access to both GB and EU markets. From a manufacturing perspective this allows businesses based in Northern Ireland to move goods freely to GB and EU, while there are of course a small number of exceptions. Our existing manufacturing businesses can continue to enjoy the freedom of access they had pre-EU exit and without the administrative burden that comes with trading under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement and the costs that incur to businesses based in other parts of the UK and EU. We are talking to international businesses about our unique dual market access position from a foreign direct investment, FDI, perspective and from an export and trading position. It is not a one-size fits all proposition. The relevance of dual market access varies depending on a company’s requirements, the industry and their geolocation. That is part of the challenge in educating and informing the market about Northern Ireland’s position. While dual market access is an important factor for businesses to consider, we know that it is only part of the business decision-making process. From an FDI perspective potential investors equally want to hear about our skills availability, our lower operating costs, our infrastructure details and what Government support is available. From a trade perspective, buyers are interested in quality, cost and deliverability. Dual market access is one consideration within the overall decision making.

We are still in the relatively early days of the post-EU exit era.

However, there are signs that Northern Ireland is faring better than other parts of the UK in terms of manufacturing exports to the EU. Between 2022 and 2023, Northern Ireland saw an increase in its manufacturing exports to the EU of 14%. By contrast, exports from Wales largely flatlined, those from England declined by 4% and Scottish exports were down by 11%. Growth in exports to the EU has been across almost all parts of Northern Ireland, with Derry and Strabane achieving the highest growth at nearly 33% in 2022. This reflects the importance of the regions in driving Northern Ireland’s economic growth and how they have a pivotal role in driving regional economic growth. Furthermore, companies are diversifying where they export to, with a number of non-traditional export markets in the EU seeing an uplift in products sourced from Northern Ireland. In particular, Denmark, Poland, Portugal and Bulgaria have seen impressive growth as export destinations for Northern Ireland goods and services.

In summary, our dual market access position gives Northern Ireland a unique competitive advantage that we are keen to maximise. Our Minister for the Economy, Conor Murphy, is actively supporting Invest Northern Ireland to promote this, including on a recent trade mission to Chicago and Toronto. Later this month, he will be leading a business round table in Berlin that is focused on dual market access as we continue to spread the message across Europe and educate the market about our proposition.

I welcome the witnesses. It is great to see them here. Those of us who live in the Border counties are aware of many of the challenges that businesses face because they speak to us daily. It is important for us to know that organisations like those represented here today are working in the background to support them.

I have two questions. Ms Hearty mentioned the 11,000 businesses that have engaged with the trade hub and said she would be happy to provide examples. She might give us some idea of the extent of the work that InterTradeIreland does and the interventions it makes. Many businesses will be in contact with us. I heard clearly what Mr. Harper said about dual market access. He said that many European companies do not fully understand the workings of the Windsor Framework, and Ms Hearty said that six in ten businesses across the island do not fully understand it. Do they have any thoughts on what can be done, either at the political level or their own level, to increase awareness or is that just going to happen organically? Is there anything that can be done to speed it up?

Mr. Harper mentioned that some companies in Wales and Scotland are flatlining with regard to exports. Has trade got to the pre-Brexit level and what is the general perspective?

Our trade hub supports businesses that want to understand how to move goods and services in the context of the new trading requirements. For many companies, the key areas where businesses seek support relate to customs declaration, treatment of VAT, regulation and cross-Border employment, which has become increasingly challenging. For example, businesses in Northern Ireland that are bringing in goods from GB now have to declare goods as being "at risk" if they are at risk of moving across the Border. Sometimes companies are over-cautious in what they are declaring so we give practical advice and support on what they need to declare or not declare. Businesses are accessing that support daily.

The Deputy mentioned the 60% that do not understand the Windsor Framework. We know that only one in five businesses is exporting and in both Northern Ireland and the Republic, we need more businesses exporting. The risk is that if they think it is very complicated, they will not explore it. The good news is that trade is increasing in both directions, both North-South and South-North, as well as GB-NI and NI-GB, so it is quite a positive picture.

The one thing that business does not thrive on is uncertainty. There is an onus on us, and we are work working very hard, to promote our trade hub service to all of the LEOs, Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland, which are very good at referring companies that need specific information on how to use the trade hub. I agree that we can always do more. As an all-island body, we have a key role in connecting the landscape and ecosystem to provide support and we work very hard at doing that.

I will give an example. Ms Hearty said there are a number of key issues around customs and VAT, and that was where we would get the vast majority of queries. We have one example of a Northern Ireland company that was importing products that it was selling in Northern Ireland, but it had opportunities to sell in the rest of Ireland. However, because it knew those were going to be "at risk" goods, it had taken the decision not to export to the South. When it sought support through our hub, where we have a range of subject matter experts on all the issues we have mentioned, such as VAT, customs and so on, it realised that the paperwork and what it needed to do was not that complex. On the back of that, it is now enjoying a lot of new sales and new business in the South. Those are some of the practical examples where, as a result of the advice, people realise they understand the issues and can be happy that they are compliant, and they are in a position to take advantage of the opportunities.

I will follow up on that specific point and then refer back to the initial question. This is where the two agencies work very closely together. I do not know the name of the exporter that is now exporting into the Republic of Ireland, but it is an exporter because it is exporting into the EU. It is up to Invest Northern Ireland to try to take it into wider EU markets on exactly the same basis as it is currently doing, although the markets could be just a few miles apart. In Northern Ireland, we have what we term “accidental exporters” in that they are selling just across the Border and do not realise that they are, to all intents and purposes, exporting. It is a question of how we maximise that and take those products and goods across.

To answer the initial question of whether there is anything to be done regarding awareness, there is a lack of awareness from EU buyers more widely than on the island of Ireland that they can still source product from Northern Ireland on exactly the same terms as they could pre-Brexit. That is not well-known. It is why our Minister for the Economy is leading that business round table later this month in Germany. Our job is to educate those buyers that they can still buy from Northern Ireland and if they have an issue with a supplier from somewhere else in GB, a supplier in Northern Ireland can help in that regard.

The awareness piece is interesting. As we have lived and breathed this for the last eight years, we almost expect everyone across the EU to have lived and breathed it, which is not the case. A big piece of awareness raising is needed.

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their written presentations, which were helpful. Brexit has been an unprecedented disruptor. I know it is the job of the witnesses to be positive but the best we have been doing in recent years, both with the trade and co-operation agreement and in negotiating the Windsor Framework, has been to mitigate as far as we can the negative impacts of that disruptor, which created two different markets on this island. There are ongoing issues to see how we can improve things.

I have a number of questions.

We had the opportunity last Thursday for discussions with the new Minister for the Cabinet Office, Nick Thomas-Symonds, who indicated to us a degree of optimism about conducting a proper analysis of where we are at and seeing if things can be improved without any major structural change such as joining the Single Market or the customs union, which will not happen for the foreseeable. I am interested to hear the witnesses' preparation for that. Mr. Thomas-Symonds also indicated to us that next year there will be a significant summit between the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, the President-elect of the European Council, António Costa, and Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission. They seem to present an optimistic view of what might come of that.

Are any of the witnesses' organisations in touch with their membership to see what can practically be done? We had meetings last week with, for example, Lakeland Dairies, which is a big cross-Border company. It crosses the Border hundreds of times daily and is very worried about the expiration of the veterinary agreement at the end of next year. It is very anxious that there be a replacement veterinary agreement and a phytosanitary agreement. This obviously has separate implications for the Republic of Ireland directing into Great Britain but from the witnesses' own perspective, what preparation has been done and what practical proposals, if any, will they present for that?

I have a second question regarding Ms Hearty's interesting response to Deputy Harkin earlier. In the context of companies that already have been operating for years on both sides of the Border or through joint manufacturing, how has that worked out? I was interested in the comment that some people were accidentally exporting. Is there a formula for dealing with that sort of co-operative work that we could facilitate, if possible, without having onerous regulation for it?

I am afraid I come from the south east, where we have benefited greatly from Brexit through the port in Rosslare. Direct sailings have gone from six weekly to 46 weekly. That is an unexpected bonus for us. However, we are also aware from speaking to hauliers, it is a point I put to them, that many goods heading to Northern Ireland would have taken the southern corridor route into Rosslare or the central corridor route into Dublin. Instead, they are now going the land route up the British coast, which is adding enormously to travel miles. I know one criterion is to reduce the environmental impact but all that extra travel is impacting on cost, fuel consumption and so on. Do the witnesses think there is any issue in mitigating that?

I can kick things off. Regarding the Deputy's first comment, we are hearing more positive comments and positive noise from both the new Labour Government and the EU, as well as Ireland and the UK, obviously, regarding the reset. This goes back to the point that uncertainty is the worst thing for businesses to deal with. All through the Brexit negotiations, we talked about the noise out there and tried to dial it down into what a business needed to do to continue to trade, to grow and to export. We are linked into the various different committees in both jurisdictions. We are feeding the concerns we are hearing expressed by businesses through the trade hub into the respective committees and ensuring that business voices are heard. Our plans are to continue to expand our trade hub and we received additional funding in the budget last week, which was very welcome, to continue to do that.

Businesses are entrepreneurial and will continue to trade if they understand the rules of engagement. Our approach is to distil that into practical business information and keep the businesses well advised. We need to do more in a similar manner to what we were doing in the early Brexit days, which was going out and holding information sessions. It requires a back-to-basics approach on that as well.

On the veterinary agreement-----

I will come in on that point of the trade hub first, if I may, that Ms Hearty has referred to. In many ways, the hub is a fantastic resource businesses can come to. As we know things are changing and moving and deadlines are shifting, first and foremost, we ensure our hub has the most accurate, up-to-date and latest information and advice available for the companies to come and self-serve and to get the information they need. Many do and are then happy and content. An important aspect of that is the telephone support we provide through experts and, in particular, the one-to-one bespoke advice. We have a range of trade specialists who understand all these issues. We can link any level of business that has particular questions with an expert who can help answer them. It is important for us to ensure that information and knowledge remains up to date.

To the earlier point that was mentioned, we will continue to promote that the hub is out there and has answers to questions, both in terms of the North-South arrangements and, for businesses in Ireland, on what they need to understand if they are looking to export to Great Britain. That remains an important source for us.

With regard to Deputy Howlin's second question on the agreement, we know how important the agri-sector, both North and South, and its importance for the all island economy. We look forward to hopefully welcoming some form of an agreement. To Ms Hearty's point earlier, what businesses hate most is the uncertainty and complications that can come on the back of that. We would hope and welcome an agreement around the e-SPS if it would in some ways help. Our mission is to always ensure that in the absence of that agreement, we have answers to the questions and make supporting advice available to businesses that want to understand it and, more importantly, want to take positive action in response and to ensure they are taking advantage of whatever opportunities are there, as well as complying with the regulations as they exist.

To back up what my colleagues at InterTradeIreland were saying, businesses in Northern Ireland do not like uncertainty as much as business anywhere else on the island of Ireland. Certainly, the new warmer relationship that seems to be brewing between the EU and UK is to be welcomed. Business in Northern Ireland would welcome that. Going back to Deputy Howlin's point on the increased routes from Rosslare to the EU, this helps our companies in Northern Ireland in that we have more access to those EU markets on a more timely basis. Again, that is one of the upsides of some of these disappointing issues. There are presented opportunities.

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.

I thank the Deputy for his question. InterTradeIreland is, indeed, one of the six implementation bodies. We are celebrating our 25th anniversary this year, after the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement was last year. We were set up with a specific remit to grow trade and economic co-operation between both parts of the island. Looking back to 1998, we had trade valued at €2 billion and, to a certain degree, two economies working back-to-back. We focused on the business and economic opportunities and probably steered clear of the politics.

To function properly as a North-South body, though, we do need both administrations up and running. We really welcome, therefore, the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive that allows the two administrations to be up and running. Our sponsoring Departments are the Department for the Economy and the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment. The Minster, Deputy Burke, and Minister Murphy hold two sectoral meetings each year where they come together and agree the priorities for the body. We really welcome, therefore, the re-establishment of the North-South Ministerial Council sectoral meetings. This allows us to continue to function fully.

An awful lot has been achieved over the last 25 years. Brexit shone a light on the interconnectedness of trade on the island and the interconnectedness of supply chains, especially in the agrifood industry, but also in other industries. There is an opportunity to accelerate and to get more businesses exporting cross-Border. We can then hand them over to Mr. Harper and Invest Northern Ireland and to Enterprise Ireland to take them off the island.

We have continued to operate for the last 25 years regardless of whether the Executive has been up and running or not. We really welcome, though, the re-establishment of the Northern Ireland Executive and a fully-functioning board with representatives from right across the island. This is what makes North-South co-operation work meaningfully and effectively.

I will add to what Ms Hearty has said. Regarding whether we get on and do the work, we absolutely do. Over the years, we have established several very practical support programmes to help companies in both jurisdictions sell and trade across the Border. These include our Acumen programme, through which we provide a sales resource and funding for a business to put a salesperson in the cross-Border market to drive sales. We have plenty of examples of businesses that through our support in Ireland have not only then sold successfully into Northern Ireland but have subsequently used Northern Ireland as a land bridge to sell into the wider GB market and beyond. At the same time, we are always refreshing our supports and looking at where the needs are and changing them.

Just this year as well, we have also launched a new first-time accelerator programme to try to encourage more of those businesses that, for different reasons, are not looking to the cross-Border market to realise the opportunity that is there, provide practical, hand-holding support to enable them to take the first steps, to trade successfully and then, in turn, to pass them over to Invest NI and Enterprise Ireland to take them further afield. We work very closely with the LEOs here in the South and the LEAs in Northern Ireland. These are just some of the examples where strong partnerships are a key part of our success. We have a comprehensive range of supports, advice and information resources to help companies to take the critical first steps and then to grow their sales on the island.

I can take the Deputy's first question concerning the role of Joe Kennedy III. He has been a phenomenal friend to Northern Ireland and to business in Northern Ireland. He is coming towards the end of his term with the US elections coming up next month. We are not so sure of what will happen beyond that point. The Deputy has rightly pointed out that this time last year Mr. Kennedy brought a delegation of US companies to Northern Ireland. It was very much about awareness-raising and bringing his contacts and some of those large organisations to take a look at what we had to offer in Northern Ireland. It was very beneficial to us. We are negotiating with several companies represented on that inward mission. What is sometimes overlooked, however, is his ability to help companies in Northern Ireland to access the US market. He has again opened his black book of contacts to make introductions. One example is a sports technology mission that we brought from Northern Ireland. This involved bringing several companies in the sports technology arena across to Boston and New England. Mr. Kennedy was very good in arranging meetings and access to allow companies from Northern Ireland to present their wares and goods. We would not have been able to do that without his assistance. To answer the Deputy's question, then, yes, he has been a super support, not just for Northern Ireland but specifically for Invest Northern Ireland. Mr. Kennedy has been a great aid to us.

To respond to the second question from the Deputy on the Northern Ireland economy and how it is doing, it feels like it is doing well. As I mentioned in my open statement, exports are increasing. We have a population of 1.9 million people. Our job in Invest Northern Ireland is to help to grow the economy through those businesses and we are not going to grow the economy by selling to ourselves. It is crucially important, therefore, that we have exporting and external sales right at the top of our agenda. We have record low levels of unemployment in Northern Ireland, but this misses the point that we have still got some stubbornly-high economic inactivity rates. We want to do everything-----

It means people in the working age range from 16 to 64 who are not actively seeking employment.

It can include early retirees and working mothers who have decided not to return to the workforce. We are trying to work with companies to access some of those labour pools and make it easier. Our Executive, for example, is bringing forward childcare supports to allow parents to return to the workforce. The economy is going well for us, our exports continue to grow and our job is really to continue to drive that. As my colleagues in InterTradeIreland have said, the restoration of the Executive is very welcome. It allows us to do things such as have a Minister to open doors and do business around tables that we as a business development agency are unable to. That is very welcome. It also presents that stability which Northern Ireland really needs to project on the world stage. Lastly, as to Deputy Haughey's final question on whether the Assembly, the Irish Government and the UK Government could do more to highlight Northern Ireland, I am of course going to say yes. I absolutely would like it to be front and centre. My job is to sell Northern Ireland around the world. Anything they can do would be very beneficial.

I thank Mr. Harper. We have heard a lot of positive points today which is very welcome. Ironically there have been very few times in the history of our island and the history of Northern Ireland that the unique position that Northern Ireland finds itself in has actually created a great benefit for it. At the heart of all the contributions today is the point that the ability to access two great markets, namely, the EU and GB markets, is fantastic for companies that have the foresight and ability to see that, regardless of whether they were originally based here in the Republic or further afield. That gives Northern Ireland a tremendous growth opportunity in the years to come and we all hope for that success.

I will conclude by thanking our witnesses for their attendance, for their presentations and for the answers they gave to members of the committee. This concludes our series of meetings and engagements on this issue. They have been very useful for all of us. The committee will now adjourn until 10 a.m. on Wednesday, 23 October.