Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank our witnesses for the information they gave us and I thank them in advance for answering all of our questions, although none of mine are tough. This is a good opportunity for us to have a good engagement and a chance for not an informal chat, but to actually probe some issues.

I was glad to hear Dr. Giblin mention Mike Hurley, the mayor of Burnaby, who I have met. I was in Canada in April. The large diaspora was mentioned. I straight up met not all of them but definitely a large chunk of them. There are many more people with Irish heritage than I would have even imagined, which was absolutely fantastic to see. There was much chat about the opportunities that exist. There were people saying things like, for example, “Let me tell you about the good work that is being done, but park that for the moment, because guess what we could do”, which is always a good sign.

I refer to the trade surplus between Ireland and Canada. It was €1.7 billion in 2021, which is a healthy figure. From my perspective, I have an interest in strengthening the Irish-owned export sector, particularly in the context of the existing large cohort of non-exporting SMEs. Irish companies tend to export at an earlier stage in their life cycle than other comparable European countries. Only 6% of Irish SMEs currently export. Most of them, while doing what they do, are exporting to Britain. Is there scope for further increases in Irish exports to Canada, especially among Enterprise Ireland, EI, SMEs? What would be the advice from a Canadian perspective on how we can turn non-exporting Irish SMEs, which make up the vast bulk of SMEs, into exporters?