Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegates for their presentations. My first question is on funding. Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and InterTradeIreland do a phenomenal job and as such, I was disappointed to see that only €3 million had been allocated in the budget. The figures speak for themselves in terms of the trade risk to various sectors. The sum of €3 million allocated in the budget represented only one fifth of 1% of the fiscal space available.

I have read through the documents to see what is going on, particularly in the case of Enterprise Ireland engaging with indigenous companies to get them ready to diversify. It is as clear as day from the data the delegates have provided for the committee from the reports produced that the indigenous sector is not prepared and not thinking about this issue as well as it should. I see very little interaction on the ground. Is a sum of €3 million enough to prepare Ireland for what will probably be the biggest macro shock the indigenous sector will experience, I hope, for quite some time? To me, it does not seem it will be enough for the agencies to do what they are speaking about. For example, Mr. Gough spoke about organising breakfast briefings. Certainly, those involved in the business sector in County Wicklow do not believe they are proactively been engaged with. Perhaps this is because the agencies are still ramping up and the money is being allocated and the teams are being hired. Could the agencies usefully put a sum of €10 million to work?

My next question is on the Brexit co-ordination group. It seems to be quite a small group of people or bodies. Is any Department other than the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation represented in it? If not, would the agencies welcome the representatives of others? Is there any employer group represented in it such as ISME, IBEC or the Small Firms Association? If not, do the agencies think they should be?

My final question, which is probably mainly to Mr. Gough, is around informal talks. The Government must take a position that all negotiations will be between the UK and the remaining 27 member states but I hope that there are intense and detailed informal talks going on, the most obvious of which are between the North and the South. I ask Mr. Gough for InterTradeIreland and for EI and IDA Ireland, what level of informal talks are going on. Are these talks getting into, for instance, the example of the flour mills? That was a fantastic example of the devil being in the detail. Those are my three questions.