[...]The Irish Economy » Blog Archive » The Northern Ireland economy[...]…

1. John’s remark about NI’s rich entrepeneurial heritage is well made. The problem today is that potential entrepeneurs are going to GB/ROI to study and ending up staying there. If NI’s politicians want to make a long-term impact, they should focus first on reversing this brain drain. If NI’s best and brightest continue to leave, it is hard to see how a bright future for NI can be constructed.

2. I was up in Belfast this week and spoke to someone working at a senior level at Stormont. He made the point that, from a governmental efficiency perspective, the NI governmental institutions are structured to make difficult decisions almost impossible.

The complex interlocking structures of OFMDFM, executive, assembly oversight committees overlaid with a system where all major parties are in government leads to decision-making gridlock. NI enjoys a privileged political position as long as the parties which promoted the Peace Process remain in government in Dublin and (more importantly as they are writing the cheques) London. But once those governments change and people outside NI regard the Peace Process as “done”, the NI executive will face very difficult political decisions.

It’s hard enough down here for the government of a sovereign people, used to the ups (1987-2007) and downs (1979-1987, 2007- ) of economic independence and operating in a system where those who take on the responsibilities of government get to enjoy the spoils of office, to face up to politically difficult but economically necessary decisions.

I have my doubts about how well any NI executive, unused to any measure of economic independence and operating a system of government where responsibility is deliberately diffused, will operate when the hard decisions start to rain down.

is this the link to the report

Thanks for this interesting post. Can I highlight that the link to the report is not included above. I would like to rread it.

John, I think that phased integration already on the way so dont worry.

In case this sounds a little too much like Sinn Fein, I should say that I have always been totally opposed to Sinn Fein, both their absurd economic policies (although these might be in the process of changing), their anti-Europeanism (now discredited after the Lisbon 2 referendum result) and their campaign of violence (although the loyalists were worse and the military were no angels).

However, as a Northern Protestant, it pains me to see how far and how fast the north is falling behind the rest of the island. The fact that, temporarily, shopping centres in Newry are doing well can’t disguise that. A century ago, the north of Ireland was renowned for its industrial flair, its enterpreneurship, its infrastructure and its educational establishments. Today, the north is falling behind the rest of the island right across the board: standard of living, productivity, infrastructure (compare the roads now north and south and contrast with what it was 20 years ago), high-quality employment, life expectancy, education, even rugby (believe it or not, until 20 years ago, Ulster would regularly thrash Munster and Leinster). For example, just today Richard Tol has opened a thread on university rankings. TCD and UCD are in the 100 universites in the world - Queens University Belfast is nowhere. When I studied at Queens in the late 1960s, the idea that we might be outranked by UCD or TCD would have been considered a joke.

I’m afraid to say that, as long as partition lasts, the north is going to fall further and further behind the rest of the island. These proposals are just papering over the cracks.