Failt erriu ooilley gys yn screeuyn naight noa Reayrtys - Mee Jerrey Fouyir, 2024 // Welcome everyone to Reayrtys' October newsletter.
We've pulled together the latest insight, analysis and news of political developments and policy decisions from the Isle of Man and beyond.
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🔥 This month’s hot topic… Isle of Man still adrift in international waters at a critical time
We’ve highlighted repeatedly that the Isle of Man Government’s lack of action on international engagement is potentially holding back the Isle of Man across a range of areas - but particularly economic, social and educational measures.
Last year we compared the status of the Isle of Man Government’s international relations set-up with the Channel Islands.
You can read the full article over at Gef, but the tl;dr is that Jersey has a full-blown government ministry dealing with external relations and operates a London Office, shares a Brussels Office with Guernsey; has an office in Normandy and even has staff at the UK’s Embassy in Paris.
Back on Buck’s Road, the Manx Government’s previous Director of External Relations left in December 2022 the post has largely remained vacant, except for a brief nine-month spell. The role was re-advertised earlier this year and will hopefully be filled soon. There is also an open role for an Executive Officer in the External Relations team.
One key consequence of this has arguably been serious drift and failure to move forward on any international relations activity. Chief Minister, Alf Cannan MHK, told Tynwald in March 2022 that Cabinet Office expected external relations priorities to be presented to Tynwald in July that year. Then an international relations strategy was slated for April 2023 as part of the Cabinet Office department plan.
Neither of these have materialised.
Then Reayrtys discovered a plan to publish a new international relations strategy in June 2024.
As far as we can tell, this has not happened.
In the meantime, the external environment has been shifting significantly - both in the UK and further afield. Our concern is that not only do we not have a firm grip of what is going on, we also currently (it seems) have no strategic plan to mitigate and manage external influences.
International engagement initiatives and opportunities, such as the InterCeltic Political Forum, the Developing Irish Sea Cooperation Project and AgileCymru come and go and it’s unclear what the Isle of Man’s position or intention is in any of this.
Instead, this news story is testament to what happens without a plan. It appears the Island’s international relations and connectivity planning is able to be be driven by a town centre survey in a small UK town and a local MP's attempts to get some local PR to boost his standing with constituents.
We really do seem adrift in international waters.
🗞️ In other Reayrtys news…
✅ Connecting Manx start-ups to the Celtic economy
We’ve been working behind the scenes with Business IOM to secure Manx Government engagement and a Manx start-up presence at this year’s InterCeltic Business Forum, a conference and community fostering economic cooperation and collaboration among Celtic nations.
There has been great feedback from the businesses who attended. One told us: “I massively enjoyed the opportunity and gained a lot of knowledge about supporting innovation in Celtic nations, and the potential connections we have into other thriving and growing business arenas. I met a huge range of people and companies and it felt like a tight-knit community of people helping Celtic nations and businesses to thrive.”
We hoping to use this initial event as a springboard for enabling more growth and engagement.
You read the full write-up on the Reayrtys blog here.
✅ New from Reayrtys - Diaspora engagement policy review coming soon
Over the past month we've been busy reviewing the diaspora engagement strategies of both our Irish Sea space neighbours, as well as the Channel Islands.
Diaspora engagement is a powerful way to attract people back to their 'home' country, boosting population as well as driving economic growth. The Isle of Man currently has no formal plans to engage its diaspora. This document looks at what others are doing and what the Isle of Man can do. It will be launched next month so watch this space.
👀 Ones to watch…
Tynwald CLAJ Committee Report coming to Tynwald
The final recommendations of Tynwald’s ‘Constitutional and Legal Affairs and Justice Committee’s report into the Isle of Man's constitutional arrangement is expected to come before Tynwald in the 21st November sitting. You can read the report on the Tynwald website.
Its key recommendations cover a number of important areas. Reayrtys will publish its headline analysis in the next newsletter but the tl;dr is: it’s good, but not as comprehensive as we would have liked.
We gave written and oral evidence to the Committee last year. Our written evidence and recommendations to the Committee are here.
New Director of External Relations for Isle of Man coming soon?
Word reached us that there were several candidates for the vacant role of Director of External Relations with an expectation that this role will soon be filled. The previous appointment wasn’t publicly announced so it’s hard to know if an appointment has been made. Hopefully, given the importance of this role, the Government will be more transparent about the new appointment.
New Irish Sea collaboration project launched to boost economic growth A new project to enhance social and economic co-operation between Northern Ireland, Ireland, Wales and Scotland has been launched by ministers from participating Governments. Running for two years, the Developing Irish Sea Cooperation project, will focus on planning future North-South and East-West economic and social cooperation and growth opportunities.
The Isle of Man is not participating, although Reayrtys is currently aiming to identify if future engagement is a possibility.
That's it for this month. Heemayd shiu y nah vee!
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