Measuring Mobility in a Changing Island A report commissioned by the EURES Cross Border Partnership Centre for Cross Border Studies May 2010 Joe Shiels Annmarie O’Kane Acknowledgements We would like to thank all those organisations who engaged with us in profiling their cross‐border employees and, in particular, Justin Gleeson, AIRO (All‐Island Research Observatory) Project Manager, National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA), National University of Ireland, Maynooth who provided maps and statistics for population within 30kms of the border. Table of Contents 1 Introduction 5 2 The Context of Cross Border Mobility 6 2.1 European Union 6 2.2 North/ South Ministerial Council 8 2.3 EURES Cross Border Partnership 8 2.4 Border People 9 3 The North West region 10 4 Cross‐border statistics in the North‐West 11 5 Survey of Organisations in the North‐West 16 5.1 Survey sample 16 5.2 The Results 17 5.2.1 Numbers of cross‐border employees, North and South 17 5.2.2 Scale of organisations with cross‐border employees, North and South 19 5.2.3 Organisation sector and cross‐border employees, North and South 20 5.2.4 Extrapolate to entire border region 22 6 Maps 23 7 Supplementary Statistics 30 7.1 North South Traffic Flows 30 7.2 Cross‐border births 32 7.3 Cross‐border Education 32 7.4 Cross‐border shopping 33 7.5 Currrency 33 8 Conclusions 35 Table of Figures Figure 1: Border People page view / hit statistics 2010 10 Figure 2: Numbers of cross‐border employees identified in North and South survey sample 19 Figure 3: Percentages of cross‐border employees by size of organisation 20 Figure 4: Numbers of cross‐border employees by size of organisation 20 Figure 5: Numbers of cross‐border employees by size of organisation 20 Figure 6: Percentage of cross‐border employees by organisation sector 21 Figure 7: Numbers of cross‐border employees by organisation sector 21 Figure 8: Location of 64 surveyed organisations within the catchment area 24 Figure 9: The scale and direction of cross‐border employees within the North West 25 Figure 10: The location of large‐sized organisations (>250 employees) surveyed 26 Figure 11: The location of medium‐ sized organisations (51 to 250 employees) surveyed 27 Figure 12: The location of small‐sized organisations (10 to 50 employees) surveyed 28 Figure 13: The location of micro‐sized organisations (<10 employees) surveyed 29 Figure 14: Annual Average Daily Traffic (5 day week) flows at Border Traffic Census collection points, 2007 (total flows in/out) 31 Figure 15: Average number of daily passengers and cars on cross‐border ferry (1 Jan ‐ 21 Mar 2010) 31 Figure 16: Births in Northern Ireland by residents of the Republic of Ireland, by NI Health Board 32 Figure 17: Number of students travelling across the border for education, 2000 ‐ 2007 33 Figure 18: Euro/ Sterling exchange rates sourced from the European Central Bank 34 Table of Tables Table 1: Residents of Republic of Ireland commuting to work in Northern Ireland, CSO 2006 13 Table 2: Residents of County Donegal commuting to work in Northern Ireland, CSO 2006 14 Table 3: Northern Irish Residents Working in Republic of Ireland, NISRA 2001 16 Measuring Mobility in a Changing Island EURES Cross Border Partnership 1 Introduction In January 2010 the Centre for Cross Border Studies was commissioned by the EURES Cross‐border Partnership to provide statistics on the number of people within the North West region who commute across the Northern Ireland/ Republic of Ireland border to work. Cross border commuting is typically borne of natural local responses to local opportunities. The behaviour of large employers and local traditions all shape the social context for the labour market in the North West where two different systems of labour regulation are in close proximity and employees can potentially fall ‘between two stools’. This happens when national institutions, effective at the level of one jurisdiction, do not mesh together with those of the other jurisdiction making it problematic to handle cross‐border employees who might have different expectations, traditions, and backgrounds. There are no centralised or categorised statistics recorded on the extent of cross‐border mobility at all‐island or regional level. Analysis of cross‐border labour is limited by shortages and mismatches of official data. While the Irish Censuses North and South are excellent sources for looking at labour flows within states, they have serious shortcomings in the information available on cross‐border flows. Not only are the censuses held at different times, the most recent census in the Republic of Ireland was held in 2006, in Northern Ireland it was in 2001, but important questions are phrased in different ways. As the recent Atlas of the Island of Ireland states “of the 1161 Small Area Population Statistics (SAPS) outputted from the 2001 census in Ireland, our analysis estimates that 32% of the variables can be matched directly to the Northern Ireland census… this means that over two thirds of all census variables published in the South have no direct equivalents in Northern Ireland without manipulation” 1. The 2011 censuses in both jurisdictions present a great opportunity to build on the development of comparative North‐South statistics. In 2001, a report commissioned by the North South Ministerial Council2 identified the lack of accurate and up‐to‐date data about the extent of cross‐border mobility as a major obstacle to 1 Gleeson, et al. 2008. Atlas of the Island of Ireland: Mapping Social and Economic Change. All‐Island Research Observatory (AIRO), NUI Maynooth. 2 PwC / Indecon Economic Consultants. 2001. Study of Obstacles to cross‐border mobility. North South Ministreial Council, Armagh. 5 Measuring Mobility in a Changing Island EURES Cross Border Partnership dealing with issues in taxation, social security, pensions, health services, childcare, housing, transport, education and training, employment law, recruitment practices, telecoms, banking and insurance for people who move across the NI‐Irish border. This NSMC report stated that approximately 18,000 workers (9,000 in each direction), 5,200 students and 4,000 migrants cross the border to work or study each year, with another 1.7 million crossing to shop or for other purposes by bus or train. It was suggested at the time that cross‐border commuting may be more significant than the data suggested. Other previous figures on mobility include the 14 million cars crossing the border at Killeen between Newry and Dundalk every year (the main cross‐border road axis) and the approximately 16,000 patients (between 1996 and 2003) who have formally crossed the border to receive health care in the other jurisdiction. These 2001 baseline figures, and subsequent supplementary figures, have been used to justify the development of cross‐border mobility initiatives over the past decade. It is beyond the scope of this study to estimate precisely the magnitude of the Northern Ireland/ Republic of Ireland cross‐border flows given its fluidity, complexity, and evolution. Instead this study has adopted a pragmatic and empirical approach to documenting mobility in the busiest cross border commuting channel in Ireland, the North‐West border region of Donegal and Derry. During February‐April 2010 the Centre for Cross Border Studies contacted a random sample of employers situated within 30km of border within the North West region to examine the number of their employees who lived on the opposite side of the border. This study sought to categorise the cross‐ border commuting patterns of 30% of all employees within the North West region, identifying where cross‐border commuting occurs and in what volume. Furthermore this study sought to elucidate the nature of cross‐border employers by identifying those sectors and scale of organisations that employ people from across the border. While the main findings of this report are centred on a survey of employers within this zone but are supplemented by the provision of other cross‐border statistics provided by Government Departments and Agencies on cross‐border flows. This is the first study of its kind to link patterns of cross‐border commuting to specific organisations. 2 The Context of Cross Border Mobility 2.1 European Union Any consideration of factors impacting on mobility between the two jurisdictions in Ireland needs to be set within the wider EU context, and specifically the right to freedom of movement which is an essential part of EU citizenship. It is also important to reflect on the fact that many of the obstacles 6 Measuring Mobility in a Changing Island EURES Cross Border Partnership to mobility evident across European borders are similar to those experienced between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The 1997 Amsterdam Treaty provided new impetus to improve labour mobility within the EU, and at the Spring European Council (Stockholm 2001) a strategy to promote the development of a more integrated European labour market was discussed. The first stage in this strategy is the implementation and completion of the first set of key policy actions to enhance mobility and maximise the potential of the internal market. The second stage was based on the establishment of a Skills Mobility Task Force, which met for the first time in June 2001. In its efforts to enhance the EU competitiveness and foster job creation, the European Council has identified mobility as a key element for achieving the goals of the revised Lisbon Strategy3 and for the implementation of the European Employment Strategy4. The designation of 2006 as the European Year of Worker’s Mobility has provided a broader vision of mobility issues, and enhanced the knowledge base about mobility flows and practices, as well as the identification of current obstacles to geographic and job‐to‐job mobility in the EU.