Debate contribution: North/South Ministerial Council: Trade and Business Development

Debate contribution by Mr Conor Murphy on 11 November 2024.

MLA: Mr Conor Murphy
Party at the time: Sinn Féin
Date: 11 November 2024
Type: Debate contribution (made as a minister)
Business: Ministerial Statements
Heading: North/South Ministerial Council: Trade and Business Development
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 4667614

Text

That was not a subject of discussion at the meeting that we had in Armagh under the North/South arrangements. Nonetheless, the Member is correct that geothermal energy can play an important part in our journey towards net zero. We need to explore all alternatives to using fossil fuels to heat properties. I understand that two experiments are exploring the potential of geothermal. One is on the Stormont estate, down at Dundonald House, and the other is, I think, at one of the agricultural colleges, although I am not sure which one. Those two experiments are being rolled out. On the basis of the analysis from them, we are happy to explore the potential for geothermal, not just here but across the island, and any collaborations that can be made. InterTradeIreland is keen to promote clusters. If industries and opportunities around geothermal should develop across the island, it will be keen to make connections between people. At the moment, we are at the experimental stage. I hope that we can quickly move on to exploring the outcomes that can be achieved from that.
There has been an increase in InterTradeIreland's staff numbers in recent times. InterTradeIreland has to be resourced to deal with the outcomes of the protocol and dual market access. We want to ensure that InterTradeIreland is best placed to try to work on the interest that there is, not just outside the island of Ireland but within the island of Ireland, in how companies can get into trading arrangements, North to South and South to North. From my recollection, the staffing cohort has gone up from about 45 to roughly 67. InterTradeIreland will develop further business plans in order to meet the challenges that it anticipates with the growing interest in the North/South and dual market access arrangements. Of course, we want to ensure not only that our businesses are in a position to take advantage, but that the organisation that is resourced to assist them has sufficient resources to do so.
We have a good advanced manufacturing sector and a strong manufacturing sector. His constituency, South Antrim and other constituencies, such as Mid Ulster, are very well represented in that regard. At the meeting, we had a presentation about advanced manufacturing clustering — something that InterTradeIreland has promoted. There were companies from North and South talking about how they had worked together. We know that, where companies come together in clusters, there is a sharing of knowledge, expertise and business opportunities, and that we tend to get more innovation and export opportunities and, therefore, more growth for those companies. The advanced manufacturing clustering programme that InterTradeIreland has focused on has the potential for huge benefit. Certainly, the presentation from the companies that spoke to us at the meeting bore testimony to that. We want to continue to encourage it so that we can see advanced manufacturing continue to grow and be a strong performer on the world stage.
I am certain that, over a number of years, there was not enough. InterTradeIreland is best placed to work on the interest from companies abroad that might consider investing or setting up here, due to the dual market access. It is also of significant interest to companies on both sides of the border with regard to how they can advance their own position to export. Therefore, we want to ensure that InterTradeIreland is resourced sufficiently to meet that challenge. There has been a significant increase in staff numbers and resource. There was an almost £2 million increase in funding for the organisation this year. We are going to look at further development plans for InterTradeIreland. There is a determination between myself as Minister for the Economy and my southern counterpart to make sure that InterTradeIreland has what it needs to do the job, because the outcome from that will be beneficial to economic growth across the island.
The Member is right: there was €30 million of funding from the Shared Island Fund for that joint initiative between Invest NI, InterTradeIreland and Enterprise Ireland. One of the programmes was to encourage female entrepreneurship. I am told that there was a very encouraging response to that programme. Of course, we want to promote more entrepreneurship and more opportunity for start-up for female business people across the island. They are very much under-represented among business leaders, and so we want to ensure that that is corrected. The programme is, in many ways, a pilot scheme, if you like — a testing ground for that — and the responses, to date, are encouraging. Of course, if that is the case, we want to take more initiatives to try to promote female entrepreneurship.
A number of vacancies have been filled as a consequence of the meeting that we had in Armagh a couple of weeks back. A number of further vacancies will arise early in the new year. For some of those, the duty of appointment will fall to the northern side of the border. There is another one to be filled from the southern side. Of course, we want to ensure that the board continues to have the membership that it requires and that input in managing and overseeing the work of InterTradeIreland. It is critical that, when the opportunities arise to make appointments, we do so quickly and we put in the best possible people to fill those positions.
Of course, that is not in InterTradeIreland's remit, and I am not bringing any politics into it. There are enormous opportunities. The statistics on North/South trade and how it has grown significantly over the past number of years are already there for people to examine. There is nothing political in that. That is businesses getting on with doing what they do best, which is doing business with each other and creating prosperity. They see opportunities in the protocol arrangements to further enhance that. The requests and their engagement with InterTradeIreland have increased significantly as a consequence of that, so we wish to support InterTradeIreland in assisting our businesses, people who employ people in your constituency, to get on and do it as best they can. An InterTrade UK body has been set up to try to ensure that any barriers that might exist to east-west trade are addressed. The First Minister and I attended a meeting in London a while back in relation to a discussion about that under the previous Administration. I have no further advice on how that body is functioning or how it is performing its duties. It is not directly responsible to my Department, but certainly, we are happy to give it any assistance if we hear from it at any stage in the future.

1,116 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

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