Exploring greater cross border opportunities - View from the Foyle
Last week, alongside colleagues in retail and hospitality, we were hosted by the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Simon Harris, at Iveagh House for a reception at the end of the day exploring greater cross border cooperation and our trading opportunities.
We met the leaders of the Shared Ireland Unit, who are making numerous investments in the NW and TDs and Senators in the Oireachtas alongside a few MPs from the north.
There’s no doubt that, because of our post-Brexit settlement, that trade in both directions on the island has grown significantly. InterTradeIreland reports that in 2019, sales of goods from Northern Ireland to Ireland totalled £1.62bn. In the last reported year, that has risen to £4.62bn.
That is almost three times more in just five years. But we’re only just scratching the surface of the opportunity.
Accompanying us were manufacturers some of whom sell lots at home and in the UK and even the US but, despite their reasonable proximity to the border, trade little with Ireland.
Smart and sophisticated leaders who are frequent social visitors across the border but with next to no knowledge of the political structures and personalities nor routes into the Irish market.
The don’t know runs the regulatory rules, how to access tendering, who potential partners are nor having any relationship with the Departments or Ministers in the Irish Government.
For decades, understandably, the Irish relationship with the north has been ‘managed’ by one department, Foreign Affairs. There’s no engagement with key economic functions like the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, with Agriculture, Food and the Marine nor Climate, Energy and the Environment to name just three.
This ‘containment’ in its Foreign Affairs department has, perhaps, inhibited the opportunity of converting the social, cultural and sporting relationships into one which creates wealth across the island.
The border region, particularly the North West, has a great opportunity in tourism, education, energy decarbonisation, aviation servicing, advanced manufacturing and more. Perhaps now is a good time for more Irish Government functions to develop stronger relationships with its counterparts and its traders this side of the border?