Mr. John Murphy:

Deputy Kyne asked about broadband and state aid. There is a general principle that state aid is allowable if one can demonstrate that there is a clear public interest and that there is clear evidence of market failure. In the case of our proposed broadband plan, we would argue that both of those tests are satisfied and, therefore, it is possible to devise ways to implement it which meet state aid requirements.

The Deputy spoke about procurement and neighbouring countries. The statistics show that the vast bulk of public procurement tends to be accessed by firms within the country concerned. That is certainly the case in Ireland. I expect that there would be slightly more open markets in say the Benelux countries where distances are smaller and a country on either side of a border is effectively in the local economy.

The Deputy also referred to an EU-US trade agreement. At a level of general principle here, the EU and the US are the two largest trading blocs in the world and there are significant potential gains from an appropriate trade agreement but there must be balance and reciprocity. We would certainly be anxious to secure a mandate on that basis because we see significant potential gains, in particular for Ireland because we are a small open economy and we are strongly represented in the sectors of interest to trade between the EU and US.