All Island Economy to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

In addressing the theme of the All Island Economy, the Centre for Cross Border Studies is informed by its core mission of supporting and promoting cross-border cooperation on the island of Ireland as a means towards greater social and territorial cohesion.

Greater cohesion will reduce socio-economic disparities between regions of the island – North and South – particularly where the border may represent a challenge to developing coordinated strategies and implementing joint interventions aimed at areas of disadvantage and their communities.

In line with the Centre’s approach to cross-border cooperation, the development of an All Island Economy should adhere to the principles of Integrated Cross-Border Cooperation. This entails the development of policies and interventions with effects across four pillars: social, economic, environmental and cooperation. Policies and interventions designed to have effects on only one pillar are normally unsustainable and more likely to have negative effects on the other pillars. Economic concerns, therefore, are not and cannot be divorced from other societal concerns, and economic development – including the development of an All Island Economy which needs to be placed within a wider Wellbeing Framework.

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