Authors cite need “to rapidly expand investment and improve skills in Northern Ireland, particularly at the post-secondary level”
A report has found that Ireland’s productivity levels have grown to 40% above Northern Ireland’s in the last 20 years.
Among the report’s main findings were that productivity levels in the two regions were similar in 2000 but in the past 20 years they have diverged, with Ireland’s increasing and Northern Ireland’s “trending downwards”.In 17 sectors for which there is comparable data, productivity levels in Ireland “noticeably exceed” Northern Ireland’s in 14 sectors, with large gaps in administrative and support services, finance and insurance, legal and accounting, and scientific research.
The report’s analysis said this raised questions about the Northern Ireland economy’s competitiveness and responsiveness to changes in “key policy” areas. “It is possible that the impacts of the Troubles, a relatively closed economy in terms of international trade, peripherality, limited results from regional policy and a historical reliance on public sector employment have all combined to subdue the impact of market forces among Northern Ireland firms leading to a productivity trend that appears largely exogenous with respect to key policy variables.
One of the report’s authors, Professor Adele Bergin, said: “While some existing studies have compared Northern Ireland’s productivity to that of regions in Great Britain, we believe that this is the first comprehensive study to compare productivity in Ireland and Northern Ireland. At the event, he said that gaps in education are among the factors that are driving Northern Ireland’s “lower relative productivity”.
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