Capital investment of €44.5m (£38m) has been awarded by the Irish Government for the expansion of Ulster University’s Magee campus in Derry. This is intended to increase the number of students at the campus from both Northern Ireland and the Republic, including through the construction of new teaching and student facilities.
It will also support enhanced co-operation between Ulster University and the new Atlantic Technological University, which has its own campus across the border at nearby Letterkenny.
This investment is part of a strong commitment by the Irish Government to an expanded Northern Ireland economy. There are several reasons for this.
The Irish Government is co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement, which was intended to not only provide peace and reconciliation, but also generate a stronger and more sustainable economy.
Those objectives have not, as yet, been fully realised. The stronger the economic outcomes from the still ongoing peace process then the more stable society is in both NI and RoI.
Cross-border economic linkages have grown since Brexit and provide substantial benefits for both jurisdictions. Many travel to work areas are cross-border. Employment opportunities created on one side of the border will be filled by people from both sides.
Equally, cross-border partnerships and clusters are mutually beneficial. Development of a cross-border bioeconomy is an instance of this. And with Dublin’s economy over-heating — particularly with regard to housing — it makes sense for some of the excess demand to come across the border.
But — and I am guessing here — there is another factor, which is risk assessment and management. The Irish Government massively outperformed the British administration in Brexit planning.
It has been reported that David Cameron instructed civil servants in London not to prepare for a Brexit outcome in advance of the referendum in case this assisted the leave side.
By contrast, Dublin undertook detailed scenario planning and was therefore better prepared for the actual outcome.
The Irish Government is surely recognising the possibility that at some point a united Ireland will happen. It is in the interests of the Irish administration for the northern economy to be as strong as possible when that happens.
The Shared Ireland Unit is likely to be very aware of this. And the political groundwork was established in the New Decade, New Approach agreement of two years ago, which provided the basis for this latest investment in Magee.
But what more can the Irish Government do to help? And how can it avoid irritating unionists in the process? It will have begun by recognising where the blockages are to an expanded NI economy.
The Shared Ireland Unit is likely to be very aware of this. And the political groundwork was established in the New Decade, New Approach agreement of two years ago, which provided the basis for this latest investment in Magee.
But what more can the Irish Government do to help? And how can it avoid irritating unionists in the process? It will have begun by recognising where the blockages are to an expanded NI economy.
But there is also likely to be a focus on NI’s technical colleges and the skills emerging from them – and it may be significant that the announcement of support for Magee referred to enhancing higher and further education.
With regard to cross-border transport infrastructure, commitment is evident from proposals to improve the Belfast-Dublin rail line; reopen the Derry-Portadown line, with onward connection to Dublin; and the funding agreement on an improved A5 Derry to Dublin road.
My view is that greater co-operation between IDA Ireland and Invest NI to attract inward investment and also on tourism, through a linkage between the Wild Atlantic Way and the Causeway Coast, would be of vast benefit to Northern Ireland. Tribal politics, as ever, gets in the way of progress.
“Northern Ireland can be the most attractive place for investment on the continent,” said the Republic’s business minister Neale Richmond in a speech last week. He was arguing, as many have, that NI has not reaped the expected peace dividend.
“The fact is that a more economically linked island of Ireland benefits absolutely everyone who lives here,” the minister said. “I want to see a more economically interconnected island, not only because I aspire to a united Ireland, which I am unashamed of, but because it makes sense for every single person who lives on this island, regardless of what constitutional future they aspire to.”
Richmond is a Fine Gael minister. But it would be difficult to find a representative of any of the major parties in the Dail who will be thinking differently.