Mr. Vivian Doyle-Kelly:

The Enterprise Ireland model, as I understand it, works with client companies and helps those client companies on a one-on-one basis. Nobody is speaking for Ireland to the government of Quebec on any kind of an official basis. While there is H.E. Dr. McKee in Ottawa, we feel there should be somebody on the ground who would deal eye to eye and directly with the Quebec government on an official basis, and Quebec government agencies given we have agencies similar to EI and IDA Ireland. As a chamber, we work closely with both Montréal International, which was set up to attract investment and create jobs in Montreal, and Investissement Québec, which has similar objectives. Our position is simply that there is a large blind spot, with phenomenal opportunity for market reach, in the context of, as Mr. Collenette mentioned, the affinity between the countries. The Irish are recognised as being one of the founding nations in Quebec and Montreal, so there are advantages from a day-to-day perspective. Anything the Irish State agencies do in Quebec is automatically leveraged into a full-time position as a body that has authority to speak for the Government.