Mr. Mark O'Mahoney:

The impact that TTIP could potentially have on the agrifood sector is a key consideration in our decision to support it. We are intimately acquainted with the companies mentioned such as Lakeland Dairies through our chambers in Cootehill and Cavan. We have seen them grow over the years. We are very much involved in supporting their growth particularly with regard to trade documentation and trying to overcome some of the barriers to accessing new markets.

We are looking at where our economy is and where it must be in the next five to ten years. As we move up the value chain in agrifood, we are finding new markets, higher value added, greater benefit to the economy and more jobs. That is essentially what informed our view that we must look at this in a positive light. If one looks at entities such as Lakeland Dairies, the Kerry Group and the Irish Dairy Board, their product is viewed as being of the highest quality in the world. Standards must be maintained. We believe a strong, robust TTIP will ensure those standards are maintained and will keep the standards at a level that will keep the Irish value added product high in consumer demand. That is an important point.

Informing our view as to why we support TTIP and on the research we have done, we looked at the effects in our European chambers. Each country did an assessment of the structure of where the economy is and where it must go. We are moving towards a high value added, service providing economy and the US public procurement market, in particular, lends itself to terrific opportunities for Irish SMEs in that sense. We spoke with Irish SMEs in software service technology and pharmaceutical companies that provide ingredients into the bigger pharmaceutical companies. Entering the value chain as well as the direct market is where we see the real benefit.