The 9th Annual NERI Dónal Nevin Lecture was hosted in association with Queens Management School, Queen's University Belfast.
Title: Options for Fiscal Devolution in Northern Ireland
Keynote Speaker: Paul Johnson, Director of Institute for Fiscal Studies & Chair of Independent Fiscal Commission Northern Ireland
Abstract for lecture: Paul Johnson introduced the work of the Independent Fiscal commission for Northern Ireland. He set out the remit and work of the Commission to date, the fiscal context in Northern Ireland and some of the issues in considering devolution.
Lecture Format:
Paul Johnson, Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies London and Chair of the Independent Fiscal Commission Northern Ireland was the presenter and Dr. Graham Brownlow, Senior Lecturer, Queen's Management School was the respondent. It was run as a live streamed webinar through YouTube.
Paul Johnson made his presentation for 45 minutes followed by a 15 minute respondent discussion from Dr. Graham Brownlow, Senior Lecture from Queens Management School, Queen's University Belfast. Graham analysed aspects of the lecture with the hope of opening up a more engaged discussion with audience members.
Clodagh Rice, BBC chaired a Q&A session and put forth questions to both Paul and Graham.
Paul Johnson's presentation and Dr. Graham Browlow's presentation are below and the video of the 9th NERI Annual Dónal Nevin Lecture can be found here
Speaker details: Paul has been Director of the IFS since January 2011. He is also currently visiting professor in the Department of Economics at University College London and is a member of the Climate Change Committee. Paul has worked and published extensively on the economics of public policy, particularly on the areas of income distribution, public finances and tax. He has previously worked in Treasury as Director of Public Services and between 2004-2007 he was the Deputy Head of the Government Economic Service.
Respondent details: Dr Graham Brownlow, FRSA is Senior Lecturer in Economics at Queen’s Management School (QMS) and is also a visiting professor at Birmingham City University. Since March 2021 Graham has been a member of the Northern Ireland Productivity Forum. Since 2012 he has been editor/co-editor of Irish Economic and Social History and in 2019 he was the Economic History Society annual conference plenary lecturer. Apart from his historical research, Graham has published on contemporary economic topics including tax devolution, industrial strategy, Covid-19 and Brexit. Prior to joining QMS in 2007, Graham previously held full-time academic posts at Dublin City University, University of East Anglia and Auckland University of Technology and he has also taught at the Open University and at Shenzhen University (China). He has also worked in Whitehall and pension fund management.