A more stable political and business environment in Northern Ireland allows collective all-island business alliances to develop. Harnessing and fostering an entrepreneurial culture is essential for a sustainable and balanced economic environment and is the main challenge facing the future of the economy on both sides of the border.
One of the big challenges to all-island business collaboration lies in the fact that the Republic of Ireland has a different fiscal, legal and political system to that in Northern Ireland. However, KPMG Managing Partner, Terence O’Rourke points out that physical proximity, improving communications and many market similarities are paving the way for collective business partnerships.
“These factors are definitely helping people look at all-island business opportunities in a far more positive light than might have been the case a decade ago,” O’Rourke says. “Therefore, it is essential that we harness these positives and take full advantage of the market potential right on our doorstep.”
KPMG have always operated as a single entity across the island because it makes common commercial sense.
“A benefit for us and our clients is that, regardless of whether you are in Cork or Coleraine, we can provide you with a seamless service and for businesses looking to grow we would certainly encourage them to look at North/ South expansion as a starting point if they haven’t already done so.”

Stability

He says, “It’s fantastic that we’ve got to the stage where business people can get on with it against a backdrop of political stability and credit is due to all of those who worked so hard to get us here.” “The fact remains that we have different fiscal and regulatory systems in operation North and South - so whilst the potential for all-island business remains huge, there’s a job of work to be done supporting those looking to capitalise on the obvious opportunities.”
O’Rourke maintains that there is a strong need to have joint ventures between the North and South, which will benefit the whole island.
“Where there is a clear and identifiable need to do something as a joint venture, the business community will be supportive,” he says, highlighting a number of cases, in for example, areas of power generation and tourism promotion, where partnership has succeeded. “I imagine there will also be further opportunities in telecoms, where we’ve seen some worthwhile developments,” he adds.

Market Scale

According to O’Rourke, collaboration makes common sense primarily because economies of scale are important to so many businesses.
“The whole island is a market of well over six million people with significant population increases projected. It’s at this sort of level that we start to match the scale of domestic markets, for example such as Austria and Denmark. Notwithstanding the great success of major Irish companies such as Elan, Ryanair, CRH and the Kerry Group, it makes it more likely that Irish businesses can grow into European and global contenders if they have stronger home markets and part of this is about having
domestically built on North/ South operations.”

Indigenous Growth

We are no longer a low cost economy and therefore it is no longer viable to rely so heavily on foreign direct investment. It is time to diversify and harness a vibrant entrepreneurial culture. To do this we must be able to deliver a steady stream of highly educated and motivated people. We also need to continue to catch up with our competitors by delivering on major infrastructural projects. O’Rourke has witnessed first hand, all-island entrepreneurship, which is growing significantly and he is impressed by the drive to foster more indigenous all-island business.

"In all of our work with entrepreneurs

North and South I never cease to be impressed at the drive of so many of our successful business people"
Terence O'Rourke Managing Partner, KPMG

“In all of our work with entrepreneurs North and South I never ceased to be impressed at the drive of so many of our successful business people,” he says. “The statistics on entrepreneurship are very strong in the South and promising in the North, however there is still a fear of failure to be overcome and we need to do more to change this. It would help encourage smaller operations to grow and it should be a natural progression for such businesses to look North or South to exploit further opportunities.”

Infrastructure

O’Rourke also contends that in order to encourage greater entrepreneurial activity and sustain an allisland economy, it is imperative that we recognise the shortcomings especially in relation to infrastructure. “It’s important to be able to get around Ireland quickly,” he points out. “The road network has improved beyond recognition and it’s definitely time to look at a further upgrade of rail links between Dublin and Belfast where it still takes two hours or more to travel a hundred miles, which doesn’t compare favourably with journey times between major cities elsewhere in Europe.” Broadband penetration is another issue and although there has been huge success in the North, the South is still playing catch-up.
O’Rourke also highlights that the North is at a tax disadvantage and explains that KPMG have been to the fore in supporting movement from Gordon Brown on this issue. “Whilst the headline tax rate in the North looks to be somewhat ‘stuck’ at the UK level we remain hopeful that the UK government will revert with some meaningful measures to assist Northern based business,” he observes.
Although there is a lot done there is still more to do; reducing the dependency on the public sector in the North and encouraging stronger growth in the private sector is particularly important. Limitless opportunities wait to be exploited North and South, if entrepreneurs consider new markets in the private and public sectors. It’s important,he says, that businesses North and South become more aware of the significant opportunities available.
“We firmly believe that a vibrant entrepreneurial culture is part of a sustainable and balanced economy. In the South, it has helped transform the economic landscape and provided opportunities for people who previously had to consider emigration. In the North such an approach is part and parcel of the normalisation of politics and business,” O’Rourke concludes.