In the first in a series of interviews with NI Assembly ministers,Dan Keenan talks to the Minister of Enterprise , Sir Reg Empey , charged with bolstering a buffeted economy
He is the face of the Northern economy, one of David Trimble's foremost allies and a trusted supporter of the Belfast Agreement. He is a relentless backer of Northern business.
Sir Reg Empey is one of the authors of the Stormont committee system, and the body that monitors his Department includes the newly-elected MP for West Tyrone, Pat Doherty. The two work well together. Perhaps this working together on common ground against a backdrop of profound political difference epitomises the new Northern Ireland after the Belfast Agreement.
Ever the pragmatist, Sir Reg is charged with bolstering an economy buffeted by 30 years of Troubles, a year of foot-and-mouth, the global downturn and the fallout after September 11th.
His economic instinct informs him that private enterprise delivers growth and wealth and that the state's job is to facilitate that. His instinct points his policy direction towards free trade and, perhaps, a single currency. But a single monetary policy bothers him.
"There's no ideological driver here. It's basically what works," he explains. Using the polite plural, he continues: "We recognise that the state on its own doesn't create wealth. What we can do is facilitate, we can steer, advise, encourage."
He is committed to the next Big Idea, the establishment of Invest Northern Ireland (INI), an umbrella organisation which includes the Industrial Development Board and the Local Enterprise Development Unit. This will be up and running by the spring with a staff of 600 and £200 million in financing.
"The other big thing is that we want to re-create the spirit of entrepreneurship . . . which to some extent has been weakened over the past 30 years."
He sees economic growth stemming from the expansion of locally-based companies, but there is no getting away from the need for direct inward investment.
For that, Sir Reg looks to North America.
"North America is still a vitally important market for us, we can't afford to turn our backs on Europe either." After the US and Canada "our next key market is the Republic", he says. "We have established an office in Dublin and we're up against the currency there, but it's not all negative."
He welcomes sterling-dollar exchange-rate stability, but when asked about the lack of stability versus the euro and the difficulties caused for exporters, he says: "I would argue that the euro is undervalued and I think my argument is right.
"I have mixed views [on the single currency]. I can see the advantages from the point of view of our exporters who are struggling. But my economic background and training tell me that if you have so many economies, all of them at different stages in development, all of them at different points in the cycle, I do not know how ultimately you can control that with a single interest rate when you don't have control of the fiscal measures at the same time.
"I believe the markets have consistently undervalued the euro because they recognise the dimension there of political interference with economic statistics that didn't previously exist. I think that undermined the currency from the very start."
He believes the "love-in with Europe" in the Republic will change. "When taxpayers in the Republic realise that in the next couple of years they will be net contributors, then I think you will find that as we move towards enlargement there will be radical alterations to the Common Agricultural Policy, and that's going to cause mayhem for lots of people.
"So I think that what we'll find is that as time passes the political momentum that drove the EU with great enthusiasm in the Republic will begin to wane."
He adds, significantly: "I think that the EU after enlargement will be a very different EU. Our role, the Republic's role and the role of others will move from one of what we can get out of it to one of how we can influence policy within it. That's going to be a very different story, and I do not believe our citizens or the citizens of the Republic have got their heads around this."
His deal-making pragmatism expresses itself in cross-Border co-operation. Explaining that he has formal ties with Mary Harney's and Jim McDaid's Departments, it is the ad-hoc arrangement with Mary O'Rourke's Department of Public Enterprise that is "going far faster than any other area".
"Mary O'Rourke and this Department here have signed off the largest interjurisdictional deal since Partition with the gas pipeline and associated arrangements.
"We are talking very intensely about regulatory regimes on both sides of the Border so that we can create a market and get some competition in there; that is, an all-island energy market within the European context."
On the issue of North-South co-operation he emphasises: "I don't see how we could improve relationships . . . on the industrial side, the tourism side and the energy side using a variety of mechanisms. The relationships are excellent at official level and ministerial level and I cannot think of any conflicts in those areas."
On a party political level, Sir Reg is confident that the cautious Northern business community has got used to having a local politician exercising power in a devolved authority.
"They were always nervous of engaging with us when we were party politicians, but when party politicians are also ministers I think they overcame it."
There remain key political tasks before the next Assembly elections, he believes. "If by May 2003 we haven't convinced the majority of unionists it is in their best interests to maintain the Stormont Assembly then it is perfectly clear that the agreement has major problems."
He says there is a need for everyone on all sides to honour their commitments - the paramilitaries to decommission, the British government - not to "remove any symbolic evidence that we're part of the UK".
He criticises the government for doing what "they should never have done" in doing "side deals" on an amnesty for on-the-run prisoners, on offices for Sinn Féin at Westminster. All of these are outside the Belfast Agreement, he says.
Yet his strongest criticism is reserved for those who oppose the agreement on the streets, yet operate it from the comfort of Stormont.
"You find me anybody, anywhere in that place who is refusing their salary cheque. I was looking around earlier today and there are all these people with serviettes stuffing themselves and yet these are the people who are talking of this 'great Satan' of an institution. They love it. They love it."