The Irish–Northern Irish Economic Relationship: The Belfast Agreement, UK Devolution and the EU

Abstract

The 20th anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement comes at a time of great discord, both within Northern Ireland (where, at the time of writing, the power-sharing executive is suspended) and between the UK and the EU (where March 2019 is the date set for Brexit). Given the close political and economic relationships between Ireland and the UK, and the need for both states to ensure sustained prosperity within Northern Ireland to assist the maintenance of peace, any evaluation of the Agreement needs to be placed in the wider context of the island of Ireland and Britain and not just focused on Northern Ireland. The main economic aspects of the Agreement are summarised, as well as the historical background to island economic strategy and the operation of the Agreement itself, the disruptive role played by Brexit is assessed and some suggestions are made about what might be needed to deal with its outcome.

Notes

1. A few days before the formal signing of the Agreement, the author received a call from one of the Irish government advisors to the negotiation team, enquiring if there were any business and economic cross-border topics that might be included.

2. It is interesting to note that the business community—north and south—argued that the Belfast Agreement did not go far enough in facilitating the economic and business initiatives that they had been promoting on a cross-border or island basis. Well before 1998, business people had already articulated the concept of a ‘single island economy’ (Quigley, 1992). At least in this context, the business community appeared to be ahead of politicians in seeing the logic of more extensive North–South economic cooperation.

3. The proposed new, low rate of corporation tax for Northern Ireland has not yet been implemented (November, 2017).