Ms Julie Sinnamon:

I normally get accused in the other direction with regard to the North-South side. I will start at the beginning in terms of indigenous exports being the smaller relation. The fact is that exports from multinational companies are substantially higher than those from indigenous companies. Having said that, we now have growth year on year and are now at the highest level in the history of the indigenous side. It is worth looking at the impact on the economy of both. Up until last year, the spend in the economy by both multinationals and Irish companies was about €18 billion, so they have both have a similar impact at local level in terms of the overall spend on raw materials, wages and service purchased locally. This year, our figures have gone from €18 billion to €20.28 billion. I have not seen the IDA figure for last year but I would be surprised if it has kept pace. The impact of the indigenous companies in the local economies in every town and village in Ireland is very often not recognised. All people see is the headline export figure. Obviously, the key focus and the rationale for our placing an additional 20 people in overseas markets is to increase the exports on which we will grow jobs, so that is something that is well made.

Last year, we had a shortfall in terms of the budget that was actually drawn down. That was for a couple of reasons. One was that our own resource income was higher than had been projected and, therefore, we needed to draw down less money from the Exchequer than was projected.

Second, there was money for seed and venture capital funds because of certain issues. Once we approve it they then use our funding to try to raise funding in the international markets, so there were delays. It is a timing issue which will catch up over the lifetime of the fund. Last year we needed to draw down less only because of the own resource income and the seed and venture capital side. Funding directly to industry increased.