Special Envoy Kennedy seeks more inclusive N. Ireland economy

U.S. Special Envoy to Northern Ireland for Economic Affairs Joe Kennedy III called for a more inclusive economy to take advantage of the country’s “peace dividend” during a National Press Club event on Tuesday.

Kennedy, who was appointed in December by President Joe Biden, said the country’s economy can become more inclusive by increasing the level of skilled workers through apprenticeships and other schemes; by boosting the number of female business leaders and entrepreneurs; and by improving access to childcare.

Right now, around 9,000 women in Northern Ireland have college degrees but no job, as they are largely taking care of their dependents like children and other relatives. Kennedy said it will be critical to help those women who wish to return to the workforce through re-skilling or upskilling, as they can help close the country’s overall skills gap.

And he said providing better childcare, a service that is “lagging a bit across the island of Ireland,” will help attract and retain workers.

“There's an opportunity here to actually scale up and build out a childcare system that can put Northern Ireland on the forefront of long-term investment in human capital, that up until now perhaps hasn't been used in a similar way,” Kennedy said.

Northern Ireland’s capital city Belfast will host a major foreign direct investment and trade conference this fall, and Kennedy said officials are being “deliberate and diligent” about the makeup of that delegation. But with 230 companies from the United States already based there and employing around 30,000 people, it may have a different feel from other trade missions.

“You don’t have to make this case to a bunch of companies that have never heard of it before,” he said.

Challenges remain, however, especially in Northern Ireland’s segregated school system. Kennedy acknowledged the “real deep and structural challenges,” but said by communities mixing more, they can help address some of those challenges.

The country’s troubled past will always be in the background, even as younger generations may not remember a time before the Good Friday Agreement that instituted power-sharing and an end to sectarian violence. But Kennedy said he always tells people in Northern Ireland that they have “done the hard part” and overcome a traumatic part of their history and can look to the future.

“The past is never far away,” he said. “You can choose to acknowledge that and to be burdened by it. Or we can also recognize the achievements that Northern Ireland and the people of Northern Ireland have made to get us to the point they’re at today.”

Despite the challenges ahead, Kennedy said there is plenty of optimism on both sides of the Atlantic to take advantage of the economic opportunities ahead. Among the citizens of Northern Ireland, he said there is a “desire not just to seize this moment, but to understand that there is in fact a very bright and bold future ahead, and to try and do the work together to get there.”