Cliff Taylor: Time for the IDA to spread its success North

The rest of the public service know that it is not wise to pick a fight with IDA Ireland. The body responsible for attracting foreign investment here is a powerful force in setting policy in a whole range of areas, based on its extraordinary record of attracting jobs to Ireland.

What it wants it usually gets. And that is because it delivers.

This year, despite the pandemic, the IDA reported a record level of job creation in the companies it supports, where employment increased by almost 17,000. Given the problems caused by the pandemic in marketing to companies overseas , this is a remarkable performance.

Now here is a question. Is the Republic willing to share the secret sauce of how to attract FDI with Northern Ireland? Research on the economics of a united Ireland still has a way to go to outline the options in areas such as the public finances and how to organise key services such as healthcare. Big investment is needed in Northern Ireland in infrastructure and education.

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Northern Ireland has an opportunity. Or it will do, if the UK government and parts of its own political system do not combine to undermine the Protocol

But in terms of sharing one island, developing a common platform to attract investment is surely a central part of the necessary discussion. Wherever you stand on Irish unity, there are surely wins here for both sides.

Of course, we can have all the studies we want on this and all the meetings of various cross-Border groups.But what will bring change is politics – and imagination.

And a willingness in this part of Ireland to see a project arriving in the North as a win for the island, and not a loss for the Republic. Meanwhile North of the Border even the development of North-South trade post-Brexit seems to be seen as a threat in some quarters.

For years, the IDA has been in competition with Invest Northern Ireland ( formerly the IDB) to attract major projects. Years of the Troubles took their toll in Northern Ireland, not least in a brain drain of graduates away to other countries.

The North has nonetheless developed strengths in parts of manufacturing, software development and areas of financial services operations, among others. ESRI research shows that it has attracted its share of high-value, high-skills investment, outflanking many other parts of the UK – though it does not have anything like the roll of big names present in the Republic.

Now, however, Northern Ireland has an opportunity. Or it will do, if the UK government and parts of its own political system do not combine to undermine the Northern Ireland Protocol. The protocol gives businesses in Northern Ireland a unique opportunity to sell goods freely into both the UK and the EU single market.

Unique selling points

In attracting FDI you needs a few unique selling points – and this is a good one. The problem, of course, is that for now no-one knows what will happen with the protocol in the short term.

Also, in the long term, the democratic safeguards in the protocol do open the possibility of the whole thing having to be redrawn at some stage. These are the kind of political uncertainties which lead investors to hold off and wait before committing – or go somewhere else.

So the talks to come in early 2022 on the protocol will be vital. As well as influencing investment decisions, they are also crucial to the political backdrop – and to relations between Dublin and Belfast.

Already the Taoiseach’s office in Dublin, via the Shared Island Initiative, has commissioned studies on co-operation, including in the vital area of attracting investment, where the ESRI is leading a research programme. So far, its work has pointed to opportunities from boosting Government research investment and from co-operating in the vital area of skills.

You could see the play to be made. A green, high-skill Ireland offering two different but complementary investment offers

Indeed, if you are looking at meaningful initiatives here, skills is the area. This is the crunch factor for high-value FDI decision – and an area of weakness in Northern Ireland, where university participation is lower and the brain drain has taken its toll.

Tied to this is the need for more research in universities and institutes funded by the government, which again increases the skills base and vital research infrastructure.

If there are cross-Border initiatives that will make a difference in the long-term, they will be those increasing the skills base and exploiting the different strengths North and South to win investments.

A recent ESRI seminar heard suggestions that the work of Skillnet Ireland – which supports business to link with education and access skilled employees – be extended to Northern Ireland, presumably in cooperation with a Northern body. A lot more could also be done via taxes and pensions to make cross-Border labour mobility easier, which will help in an era of chronic labour shortages.

There are compromises here on all sides if this is to work – political and economic.And a need to frame all this in the context of the climate change agenda, realising that clean energy, for example, is now a vital factor in attracting companies here.

Complementary offers

But you could see the play to be made. A green, high-skill Ireland offering two different but complementary investment offers. You’d worry that the rows about the protocol might bury any chance of progress. But it shouldn’t.

Dublin is jammed,has a chronic housing shortage and does not need more FDI beyond what will develop from firms already there. As well as tasking the IDA with attracting investment to other parts of the Republic, common sense would say that it could also play a role in working with Invest Northern Ireland in developing an all-island offering with targets to be met.

Politics would say otherwise, of course. But some ways need to be found to boost the long-term economic prospects of Northern Ireland, now hugely reliant on the UK exchequer.

Already the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol has led to a big jump in North-South trade flows. People have spoken about the all-island economy for many,many years; perhaps finally something is stirring.