Mr. Mark O'Mahony:

The information that exporters and importers need is available, but the issue is that it comes from very disparate sources. Members can carry out an exercise at home tonight and try to find the information that an exporter, particularly a SME, would need to get their product off the island.

One must go to the Chambers Ireland website to learn about one element of trade documentation, the Revenue Commissioners to learn about customs information, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to find market access information, Enterprise Ireland to find about the potential of in-country markets, individual banking websites to find information on trade finance and separate private sector websites for information on potential trade risks. The UK website, ukti.gov.uk, is impartial in that it is not sponsored by a particular commercial entity and is one source which provides all of the information. A small company can access it and within half an hour have an idea of the process involved. "Process" is the key word because there is a sequential element to exporting. There is no point in finding out about the trade risk associated with a country without also finding out about market potential and whether there is access to finance. A number of steps need to be taken and someone dipping a toe in the export market needs to find out the correct sequence of steps before embarking on investing, hiring a freight forwarder or other elements of the trade process. There is no single source for that information. It does not need to be a hugely complex website, it just needs to aggregate the information already available on a simple site. Access from a single point is the key, not an all-singing, all-dancing, highly technical website.