Debate contribution: Economic Trends on the Island of Ireland

Debate contribution by Dr Caoimhe Archibald on 26 January 2026.

MLA

Dr Caoimhe Archibald

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

26 January 2026

Type

Debate contribution (made as a minister)

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Economic Trends on the Island of Ireland

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5341327

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Go raibh maith agat, a Phríomh-Leas-Cheann Comhairle.

I thank the Members who tabled the motion. The ESRI report is a welcome contribution to the debate on how best to achieve our economic goals. It is worth pointing out that the North is outperforming Britain in economic output, earnings and export growth. Key to our success is the rise in all-Ireland trade. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), from 2020 until 2024, sales from North to South increased by 128·5% to £5·5 billion. According to NISRA, the number of businesses in the North selling goods and services to the South increased by 11% between 2018 and 2023. The Chair of the Economy Committee is not in the Chamber, but, when he was setting out the east-west dimension, he left out the fact that more businesses trade North/South than east-west. Despite those positive trends, we continue to do less well than the South on a number of measures.

The more integrated that the all-Ireland economy becomes, the more that we can expect to see a convergence of performance. There is strong evidence that greater all-island integration is in our economic interests. Businesses have led the way on that and recognised the opportunities in trade and collaboration. It is important that the Government also recognise those opportunities and support businesses in maximising the economic benefits. My Department is working more closely than ever with the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to ensure strategic alignment across key policy areas. That partnership is already driving progress through initiatives such as Shared Island and PEACE PLUS.

The ESRI report makes clear that we have ground to make up in comparison with the South on indicators of economic inactivity, living standards, household incomes and participation in post-16 education and skills. Those are areas on which I am focused through the delivery of the economic vision. I have set four clear economic objectives: creating good jobs; promoting regional balance; increasing productivity; and decarbonisation. To safeguard and deliver more good jobs, my Department is taking forward the most significant improvement in our employment law in a generation. It will improve working conditions, strengthen trade union representation and help to prevent good employers from being undercut by competitors using poor working practices. To drive the growth of good jobs, we must raise our productivity, which is at least 20% lower than that of the South. I am very ambitious in my aspirations for our economic delivery, but the Member for Foyle, who wants me to turn our productivity around in two years, is even more ambitious. It will take some time to make a difference in relation to some of the historic underinvestment that we have seen that has led to poor economic outcomes. Driving up business investment in technology and skills is essential, and we are supporting the growth of seven high-productivity sectors through the delivery of sectoral action plans. Through one of those sectors — cyber and software — we can really boost our productivity through artificial intelligence. I have set out a broad framework as a starting point to make the most of our opportunities through AI. That follows investment of £16 million in the new Artificial Intelligence Collaboration Centre, which is a partnership between Queen's University and Ulster University. On regional balance, my Department has established 11 local economic partnerships, and I have now approved four action plans, with the rest due to come to the Department for approval in the next few weeks. Those partnerships will directly support regional economic development. Importantly, they will also ensure that the Government have a clearer view of local needs and priorities and can respond accordingly. Invest NI is also responding to the regional balance challenge and has been challenged to increase the number of investments outside Belfast from 56% to 65% over three years. It is on course to achieve that target, and I am sure that Members will be pleased to hear that the gap between the lowest and highest earnings per council area has narrowed by 2% over the past year, indicating that progress is being made in tackling regional imbalances. In the north-west, the expansion of Magee is proceeding at pace. The Magee task force has delivered a comprehensive road map to reach 10,000 students. Having delivered a 22% increase over the past two years, we now have a record 6,500 students at Magee. The ability of businesses in Fermanagh to avail themselves of the Ireland's Hidden Heartlands brand will bridge our tourism offering, North and South, and boost visitor spending in that part of the island. On the delivery of net zero, overall emissions have been reduced by 31·5% since 1990, but we still have a considerable distance to travel. I am committed to bringing people with us as part of that process. The renewable electricity price guarantee will ensure that people living near renewable electricity generators get a discount on their bills. We are also promoting more green jobs through the green tech sectoral action plan and the green skills action plan. These are growth industries that help us to deliver net zero and develop our economy at the same time. All four of my objectives are underpinned by investment in ensuring that people have access to economic opportunity through education and training. Last year, we invested an extra £12 million, through a flexible skills fund, in 20 different projects, supporting over 10,000 people and 500 employers. I have continued that support into this year, with a further £10 million invested across 15 projects, supporting over 8,000 individuals and 500 employers. In addition, I recently published a comprehensive skills action plan to ensure that there is a clear pathway for everyone to enhance their skills. Members will be aware that my colleague the Minister of Finance issued a draft Budget for consultation earlier this month. He has set out the scale of the challenge that we face when we look at our finances and the need to effect real change, as well as the significant opportunity for strategic planning that having the first three-year Budget in over a decade would bring. We need additional powers to control our own finances. Department of Finance officials are actively engaging with their Treasury colleagues in order to consider the scope of a full fiscal framework, with fiscal devolution forming a central pillar of that. The Finance Minister has made progress in that area. I know that some Members in the Chamber might denounce the desire to have increased fiscal powers and might demand to know what it is that we want to do with them. As Matthew O'Toole mentioned, the Fiscal Commission published a report a couple of years ago. It made recommendations, and those are the type of things that we want to see brought forward. I am sure that Members will appreciate that we need to have an Executive position in order to move that forward. When it comes to the types of initiative that we could take, simply having fiscal powers, for example, on income tax, means that, if we take positive steps to increase people's incomes and prosperity, we would get the benefit from that, and it would not simply return to the British Treasury.

To engage with the Treasury.

I am sure that we could set out what our position would be in relation to fiscal devolution. However, as I said, we need to have Executive agreement in order to move forward with devolution. That is not a difficult concept to grasp. As part of the interim fiscal framework with which, I know, the Member will be very familiar, there was agreement to proceed to engage around the principles of fiscal devolution, which is what the Finance Minister is trying to do. The ESRI report provides very welcome evidence of economic trends across the island. Businesses are already seeing the opportunities in the all-island economy. That organic growth will be supported under my stewardship of the Economy Department, because that is in the economic interests of all our people.

1,340 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 14:31 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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