Speech by Taoiseach Micheál Martin at the Ibec-CBI NI all-island business conference Ballymascanlon Hotel, Dundalk 12 June 2025

Thank you, Danny, and thanks to everyone at Ibec and CBI Northern Ireland for inviting me to speak here today. 

Go raibh maith agaibh go léir. Tá an-áthas orm a bheith anseo i gContae an Lú agus ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil as ucht an cuireadh a bheith in bhur dteannta inniu.

I welcome the focus of your conference today on Protecting all-island business in a new global environment. Because, what became increasingly apparent in these past few years is that the all-island economy and all-island businesses are becoming increasingly sophisticated and increasingly valuable to both economies, North and South. They are certainly worth ‘protecting’. 

I would go further to say that our ambition should not just be to protect what we have in terms of all-island business, but to pursue opportunities to grow all-island businesses and trade opportunities further.  

And, yes, this is in the context of an increasingly complex global environment. Perhaps precisely because of that increasingly complex global environment, we need to be more bold and ambitious around growing the all-island economy and the trade and investment opportunities more widely between these two islands of Great Britain and Ireland.

It is now well over a year since the restoration of the Assembly and the Executive and our positive engagement with the Executive and strengthened partnership with the UK Government provides the most promising context we have had for years for harnessing what North/South and East/West partnership can deliver.

Last week, I had calls with Northern Ireland party leaders. Our discussions covered a wide range of issues, but what struck me most was the sense of momentum. The wheels are in motion. 

Tomorrow, I will join First Minister Michelle O’Neill and deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelley, as well as Scottish First Minister John Swinney and Welsh First Minister Eluned Morgan for the 43rd British Irish Council Summit in Newcastle, Co. Down.

And quick on its heels, Ministers North and South will gather for the plenary session of the North South Ministerial Council in Armagh the following week. These institutions are essential when collectively addressing the shared objectives underlined in our respective programmes for Government ‒ including, of course, shared economic and investment opportunities. And it is chiefly this I wish to discuss today. 

Economic stability and sustainable growth rely on a culture of enterprise, innovation and investment that benefits everyone. North and South, we have a shared responsibility to work together to foster such a culture on all parts of the island. 

It is also of central importance that our decisions are informed by evidence-based research. 

Last April, I launched the overarching report and new phase of the ESRI’s joint research programme as part of the Shared Island Initiative. To date, the ESRI’s research programme has proven an invaluable resource, bringing together a wealth of data and analysis that will greatly assist in further developing North South cooperation. 

One of the key conclusions of the ESRI’s research is that, while much has been achieved, all-island cooperation still has huge untapped potential. 

Our ambitious agenda for building a Shared Island, backed by the Government’s commitment of a further €1 billion to the Shared Island Fund to 2035, will help ensure that this potential is realised and converted into performance.

The Shared Island Initiative has already driven a step change in how we develop and drive investment to benefit the whole island. 

We are just a stone’s throw from the construction site for the iconic Narrow Water Bridge. This will serve as a lynchpin for growing sustainable tourism and recreation in this stunning region. 

The Government is now underpinning that investment with a new €6m tourism shared destination development programme for Carlingford Lough and the surrounding region, for Tourism Agencies and Local Authorities to work together to maximise the economic benefits for the sector and for communities on either side of the invisible border.  

More broadly, along the Eastern seaboard, through the Shared Island Fund and other sources the Government has resourced the new hourly-frequency train service between Dublin to Belfast. Already in its first six months this has achieved a 50% increase in passenger numbers, enabling new business, education and community connections through the Dublin Belfast Economic Corridor.  

The Government has also made major transport, education and economic development commitments for the North West region, including to the long-overdue A5 upgrade and to re-introduce an air route between Derry and Dublin.

The Shared Island Initiative is about investing and cooperation not just in border regions, but in growing the all-island economy and benefitting the entire island.

For instance, with a total €30m commitment through the Shared Island Fund, the three Enterprise Agencies on the island ‒InterTradeIreland, Enterprise Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland ‒ are now working together in a far more concrete and ambitious way than ever before. Delivering on common priorities for both Administrations, to support women-led enterprises; develop new island-wide clusters; and back sustainability and innovation actions by firms with a €20m capital investment call that is underway. 

The Government has also worked with the Executive and the UK Government to bring our collective action to drive research and innovation to a higher level through the Co-Centres programme, supported by Taighde Éireann with Northern Ireland and UK partners. Two Co-Centres ‒ on Sustainable Food Systems and on Climate + Biodiversity + Water – are creating a dynamic and impactful research and innovation network across Ireland, Northern Ireland and Great Britain on areas of crucial importance.

We are also supporting the largest ever programme of research cooperation by Higher Education Institutions across the island, through the North South Research programme, with a €50m commitment to date.

These are the kind of tangible, strategic investments and programmes we need to take our all-island economy to a new level and to open even more opportunities for people and businesses, North and South.

This is just the beginning of what we will do and achieve in the time ahead, working with the Executive and UK Government and with business and other stakeholders and drivers of prosperity and social capital right across this island.

We want to develop the all-island skills agenda to meet our future skills needs – for instance in construction and infrastructure ‒ to better harness the potential of the island-wide labour market, for workers and employers.

I believe there is more we could do also to get to a more collaborative approach in how we work to attract foreign direct investment to this island in key sectors where there are complementary and often connected capacities North and South, to benefit the island as a whole. 

The Government also wants to see coordinated action and investment to support an all-island supply chain for offshore wind energy and to mobilise private investment into strategic infrastructure in the Irish and Celtic Seas to support our common decarbonisation agenda.

We are working every day to take up that opportunity in full and will continue to drive more strategic cooperation and investment to grow, renew and support our economy and society right across this island, now and into the future.

I am also pleased to say that the East West relationship is in a positive place. The first in a series of annual UK-Ireland Summits was held on 6th March in Liverpool. At the Summit, Prime Minister Starmer and I agreed a wide-ranging programme of new and enhanced strategic cooperation between Ireland and the UK to be taken forward by both Governments through to 2030. 

We discussed a comprehensive programme of joint work, harnessing the potential of our partnership to deliver economic, political and social benefits for people across both of these islands in areas such as energy; growth, trade and investment including SME support and infrastructure delivery; and research collaboration.

In progressing our cooperation, we will ensure that our partnership includes and benefits Northern Ireland.

I look forward to continuing to work with Prime Minister Starmer and his Government in the coming years to build on the agreement framework and to further identify opportunities for cooperation.

The same spirt of partnership is also notable in EU-UK relations. Last month, the European Union and United Kingdom held their first Summit, beginning a new phase of EU-UK cooperation on issues including security and defence, energy, people to people links, sanitary and phyto-sanitary arrangements, fisheries, and emissions trading.

The outcomes of the Summit are also good for the island of Ireland – and in my view for the whole of the EU and UK. 

The Government will continue to ensure that our commitment to protecting both the Single Market and the all-island economy remain fully understood by the European Commission. 

We will also continue to support refocusing the EU agenda on competitiveness, productivity and removing barriers within the Single Market.  

A properly functioning Single Market, particularly for services, is fundamental to Europe’s long-term competitiveness in an era of fierce global competition.

Addressing the EU’s regulatory burdens will be critical to achieving this. Supporting measures on simplification, while maintaining high ambition in terms of environmental protection standards, is essential for the EU.  

The strength and growth of the energy sector is central to improving overall productivity levels and the EU’s ability to compete globally. 

We are keen to ensure that we are in the next wave of clean industrialisation, digital innovation and decarbonisation.

This increased focus on competitiveness at EU level is also reflected at national level and the Government has committed to publishing an Action Plan on Competitiveness and Productivity.

While we cannot predict everything, we can be prepared. The approach to global trade taken by the United States has unleashed enormous uncertainty across the world. 

Yet as we navigate this complexity, it is important for us to highlight the strong foundation upon which our relationship with the US is built and focus on telling the exceptional economic story of the mutually beneficial economic relationship between the Ireland and the US. 

Ireland has risen to become the sixth largest source of foreign direct investment in the US, with more than 200,000 people now employed directly by 770 Irish companies. 

At the same time, we are working with our EU partners to mitigate the unpredictability of the current situation in relation to tariffs and will endeavour to ensure our policy is informed by the people in this room, North and South, who are directly involved in the day-to-day running of all-island businesses.

There are challenges ahead, but there is also good reason to be optimistic. I look forward to seeing those here today working together for the benefit and prosperity of everyone on this shared island.

Go raibh maith agaibh.