{"id":58474,"date":"2025-04-28T21:29:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T21:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/58474\/"},"modified":"2025-04-28T21:29:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T21:29:09","slug":"republic-and-northern-ireland-must-co-operate-to-attract-foreign-direct-investment-to-border-counties-says-taoiseach-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/58474\/","title":{"rendered":"Republic and Northern Ireland must co-operate to attract foreign direct investment to border counties, says Taoiseach \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland must work together to bring in foreign direct investment (FDI), Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has said, following the publication of a key economic report.<\/p>\n

Border counties could become home to \u201cvery significant\u201d foreign investment benefiting from low taxes in the Republic, but, crucially, with ready access to Northern Ireland\u2019s labour pool, even though there are tax issues to navigate.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe real challenge I\u2019ve always found, which hasn\u2019t really been grasped, is whether we could have a joint FDI offering,\u201d the Taoiseach told an Economic and Social Research Institute<\/a> (ESRI) conference, though he questioned the interest displayed by state agencies in the past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there has been a real lack in trying to pull that together. It\u2019s not easy and there are challenges, but I am not sure that the will has been there among the agencies. Understandably, they have their remits,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Enterprise Ireland<\/a> and Invest NI<\/a> have made \u201csignificant gains\u201d to boost the numbers of small and medium-sized companies from both sides of the Border travelling abroad together in search of business, though \u201cnot as consistently as we might like\u201d.<\/p>\n

Illustrating the understanding enjoyed among unionist politicians of the successes of the Industrial Development Authority (IDA), Mr Martin quoted former Democratic Unionist Party<\/a> leader Peter Robinson<\/a>\u2019s declaration: \u201cGive me the IDA any day!\u201d<\/p>\n

Highlighting issues on which he wanted to see progress with Stormont, Mr Martin said there were substantial advantages to co-operation on education and skills training, health and environmental policy, along with direct investment and energy security.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see progress in each of these areas, and more in the times ahead,\u201d he said as he launched the ESRI\u2019s report, Sharing the Island: Economic and Social Challenges and Opportunities.<\/p>\n

Huge strides have been made since the Belfast Agreement<\/a> nearly three decades ago, but cross-Border co-operation has \u201cso far failed to meet its full potential\u201d since.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sustained peace that we enjoy must also mean increasing prosperity, opportunity and wellbeing for all. This is pivotal in achieving a more reconciled future for all communities on this island,\u201d Mr Martin said.<\/p>\n

Pointing to the ground made since he established the Shared Island initiative in 2020, Mr Martin said \u201ca step change\u201d had taken place in the deepening of all-island co-operation and connections.<\/p>\n

Half of the \u20ac1 billion fund allocated by the Government has already been marked for spending, and a further \u20ac1 billion was going to be spent over the next decade on cross-Border co-operation, he said.<\/p>\n

The Government, in conjunction with Stormont and London, would pursue \u201cthe exciting, essential opportunity\u201d that now existed to pursue \u201ca prosperity agenda for the whole island and achieve a deeper reconciliation\u201d.<\/p>\n

Research carried out by the ESRI has highlighted the \u201dhuge untapped potential\u201d that existed for all-island co-operation, along with the \u201csignificant commonalities and differences\u201d.<\/p>\n

He noted the findings surrounding lower educational levels, productivity and life expectancy trends in Northern Ireland, which were \u201ca cause of concern\u201d and a reminder of the need for more rapid change.<\/p>\n

Prompted, perhaps, by events in the United States<\/a>, the Taoiseach went out of his way to praise the role of the independent, but state-funded ESRI in Irish public policymaking.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstitutions do matter in democracies, and the independence of institutions do matter in democracies, and access to independent research is critical in terms of keeping society and a democracy fit, and on its toes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The ESRI has consistently made landmark contributions to the development of public policy in Ireland.<\/p>\n

In a time of increased discord and reduced attention spans in public debate, the institute was a respected, rigorous voice that informed discussion, the Taoiseach told the gathering hosted by the ESRI, which this year celebrates its 65th anniversary.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland must work together to bring in foreign direct investment (FDI), Miche\u00e1l…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58475,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[26319,924,30588,13516,30589,681,1144,30590,16,15,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-58474","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast-agreement","9":"tag-democratic-unionist-party","10":"tag-enterprise-ireland","11":"tag-esri","12":"tag-invest-ni","13":"tag-micheal-martin","14":"tag-northern-ireland","15":"tag-peter-robinson","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom","18":"tag-united-states"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114417720546423363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58474"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58474\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}