Mr. Michael Slein:

To answer on behalf of the Irish Exporters Association, the first major issue is access to finance. For example, a typical business that wants to add €1 million in turnover has a requirement for €300,000 in terms of funding stocks and debtors. Therefore, if I want to grow my business by €5 million, I need somebody to give me €1.5 million, and that is not available. It is as simple as that. Forget all the advertisements we hear on the radio about Bank of Ireland being open for business, it is not.

The second big issue is the allocation of resources. Senator Walsh asked about India and China. These two countries represent almost 50% of the world's population and we have some 15 to 20 representatives between them, whereas Enterprise Ireland has 300 people in East Point. That is a classic example of poor allocation of resources.