Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

If I have not taken a note of all of the Deputy's questions, he can remind me. I will start with Brexit. Obviously, we are watching very closely what is happening. The Government and most Irish people hope the United Kingdom will vote to remain in the European Union. The value of trade over and back across the Irish Sea every week is €1.2 billion. It is a massive trade and we want to protect it. We will do everything to protect it, but it must be remembered that there would be a two year lead-in period. It will not all happen on Friday morning if the people of the United Kingdom decide to exit. We have contingency plans in place and, depending on the result, will be meeting very early on Friday morning to decide what exactly we should do.

We will continue to work with our clients. I have mentioned Enterprise Ireland and that our exports are massive this year, at a figure of over €20 billion. England accounts for €7.2 billion of this figure. In fact, the trend is downwards; the figure has fallen from something like 45% ten years ago to approximately 37%.

To counteract this trend, Enterprise Ireland is making sure that we gain markets. We are diversifying and making sure that we are out there getting more markets. The agencies will continue to work really hard. We know there will be issues around currency fluctuation, regulation, tariffs and all of that. If such issues arise, our agencies will help their existing companies to work their way through any issues. It will be all hands on deck on Friday morning.

I was asked about the property background. IDA Ireland regularly assesses property requirements in the regions and it has identified locations where quality building and site solutions would enhance the property or the opportunity for winning FDI. I have a list of all the visits made by IDA Ireland to counties, but job creation is not all about IDA Ireland because Enterprise Ireland also delivers jobs. I know it is really popular to ask about visits by IDA Ireland.

In terms of clients of IDA Ireland coming to the country, if companies have decided to locate their businesses in a particular region, then it is really difficult for IDA Ireland to bully them to go somewhere else. Of course, if one has advance factories, suitable vacant factories or vacant company sites, then one can bring companies to these areas.

IDA Ireland has spoken to me about another issue. We can tell a Chinese or Singaporean company, for example, that it only takes one hour to travel from Dublin to Athlone but, in contrast, to us Athlone seems thousands of miles away. We are working our way through the matter. I am from the country. I know that I have said the following many times but I am determined that IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland will do their very best to bring their clients to the regions. Improvements have been made because last year, 51% of visits were made to rural and regional Ireland, but this year that figure has increased to 56%, which proves we are working away. I am sorry but Dublin and Cork are popular locations to visit, and Galway has had ten visits. I have visited Athlone, Galway, Sligo, Leitrim, Longford and Limerick. All the people in these locations, especially the teams that we have built around the regional plans, for example, the local authorities, IDA Ireland, Enterprise Ireland, local enterprise offices, LEOs, and industrial ambassadors, are doing their very best to ensure we get companies on board.

In terms of audits, I can confirm that audits are conducted by the Comptroller and Auditor General. There are no issues of concern across the agencies, in terms of the Comptroller and Auditor General's annual examination.