Functioning NI Executive needed to make most of opportunities, says US special envoy Joseph Kennedy

Local government and administration need to be functioning in Northern Ireland for the region to realise the business opportunities that present, the US special envoy on economic affairs Joseph Kennedy has said.

Speaking in advance of leading a business delegation to Northern Ireland this week, he said that large-scale business investment was likely to be drawn to areas of stability.

“If you’re going to make investments in the billions of dollars, you want to make sure that the foundation upon which those investments are built are stable and secure. Having [the Northern Ireland political] institutions up and running and healthy and functioning are a critical piece to that.”

Mr Kennedy said that that would be a message that would be clearly delivered by members of the business delegation.

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“I understand how important it is to have that stable functioning government. I served for nearly a decade in the US House of Representatives. You know, it hasn’t been the best three weeks there either [with the inability to elect a new Speaker].”

Mr Kennedy said that with the implementation and activation of the Windsor Framework agreement — the post-Brexit deal between the EU and UK government in London on the operation of the Northern Ireland protocol — there was “an excitement about the opportunities that Northern Ireland presents”.

He said in order to fully realise those opportunities, “local government needs to be functional”.

He said there was also a recognition that functioning [political] institutions “create a stable and predictable playing field upon which business investment will rest. And so people are looking forward to the standing up of Stormont as quickly as possible and recognize that folks are trying to work in that direction.”

Mr Kennedy was appointed by US president Joe Biden as a special envoy to Northern Ireland for economic affairs earlier this year.

He said on Monday that the delegation travelling to Northern Ireland this week would be made up of nearly 50 US business leaders from across a number of sectors that were identified by the business community in Northern Ireland as well as from industries in the US that were interested in exploring opportunities in the region.