The latest ESRI-Shared Island report also identifies a number of areas around employment, childcare, and education.

The research found that Ireland is outperforming Northern Ireland in most areas, including labour market trends, living standards, economic structures, education, health and overall well-being.

Northern Ireland stakeholders expressed frustration over a lack of progress on childcare policy due to the collapse of the powersharing executive.

In 17 sectors for which there is comparable data, productivity levels in the Republic “noticeably exceed” Northern Ireland’s in 14 sectors