Michael D’Arcy

Michael is a business consultant and advisor who is also a researcher, interlocuter, speaker and writer who continues to play a central role in the development and evolution of an all-island economy, advocating how prosperity is needed to underpin peace and stability.

His work and experience which continues today includes advising and providing extensive all-island strategic research insights informed by being an early pioneer of North/South economic and business interaction both before and since the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement and more recently the impact of Brexit on this process that has resulted in the 2023 EU/UK Windsor Framework agreement.

Currently Michael is a CCBS Senior Research Associate and has supported its work since its foundation. He produced its seminal publication: Delivering a Prosperity Process: Opportunities in North/South Public Service Provision (2012) and was a Panelist at its 20th Anniversary Conference where his remarks considered: ‘The all island economy and the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, past present and future’. He has contributed articles to the CCBS Journal including its 2019 Special Edition (Vol 14) on ‘Sir George Quigley , the island Economy and Brexit’ and in 2020 presented the 5th Annual Sir George Quigley Memorial Lecture, ‘Re-imagining the island economy in the aftermath of the Covid 19 crisis and the Ireland/Northern Ireland Protocol’, which was the first of the series to be delivered online.

The 2023 CCBS Journal also features his article on Pre-1998 Agreement: Laying Foundations for Economic Achievements in North-South Businesses’ and last May he gave a response paper at the CCBS’s important seminar in NI Executive’s Brussels on What the Windsor Framework/Protocol will mean in practice for the institutions of government in Northern Ireland?

He is currently also independent advisor to the Ibec/Confederation of Business Industry Joint Business Council and was production coordinator of their ‘Business on a Connected Island’ (2018) and ‘Sustaining the Mutual Benefits of All-island Business‘ (2022) Reports along with supporting Ibec’s ‘for Peace + Prosperity’ campaign to mark this year’s 25^th Anniversary of the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement.

Michael is an active member of the Steering Group for a ground-breaking macro-economic Research Programme for Northern Ireland (2022-2025) led by Ireland’s Economic and Social Research Institute and the UK’s National Institute of Economic and Social Research, is an Advisor to the Leadership Programme of The Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation and supports the work of the John and Pat Hume Foundation. Amongst publications for others, he co-authored ‘The Belfast/Good Friday Agreement, the island of Ireland economy and Brexit’ (2018), a Brexit Briefing Note for the British and Royal Irish Academies whose citations include from Oxford University.

In addition, Michael is a leading economic policy advisor to national and international state, semi-state and commercial organisations and institutions and has been actively involved in regulatory reform at regional, all-island, EU and international level throughout a successful career spanning over 40 years, serving on Boards, consultative committees, and all island bodies.