Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for allowing me to contribute today. If there is any doubt about the serious threat that Brexit is for the business sector, one should hear the account from the mushroom industry, on which a debate is taking place in the Dáil as we gather here. The mushroom industry representatives made a presentation to the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine of which I am member and I can tell members there is no doubt about the impact of Brexit on this industry. A significant number of jobs in that sector have been lost already because of devaluation of sterling. There is no doubt about the threat of Brexit to businesses across the island.

In the InterTradeIreland presentation from Mr. Aidan Gough it was alarming that 97% of businesses had no plan ahead of the referendum vote and 92% had no plan in terms of this eventuality. There was a widespread assumption that it would be a vote to remain in the EU, not one in favour of Brexit.

The other point that was worrying was that one in five firms plan to decrease the level of investment. I would like to hear the witness comment on this. I appreciate that for Enterprise Ireland, IDA have as many opportunities as threats in terms of bringing investment into the country, particularly competing with a number of multinationals that traditionally would have invested in Britain and is looking at bringing them to Ireland.

In the presentation by Enterprise Ireland, they talk about looking at other export opportunities. It is a much more positive presentation. It does not really tally with the survey that InterTradeIreland has. I want to get a sense of whether IDA understands the severity of this.

Second, in fairness to Enterprise Ireland, it acknowledges that a number of sectors are under threat - construction, engineering, agricultural machinery, timber, food, particularly the agri-food sector. I assume Enterprise Ireland has detailed data on a county by county basis of companies and their level of exports to the North and to Britain. What plan has Enterprise Ireland for the Border counties? A very significant organisation that comments on economic matters in this State recently briefed Oireachtas Members that the North is in serious trouble in their opinion, that County Donegal is under threat and interestingly County Waterford is under threat because of its exposure to exports. Waterford is heavily reliant on exports, which one would not have thought.

Is the data that Enterprise Ireland has informing its position of putting a focus on counties and sectors that are impacted by Brexit? Is there a really focused evidence based approach to how Enterprise Ireland is dealing with this?

In terms of currency hedging, what is really worrying is that the advice we are getting is that the Bank of England will take the approach that for the foreseeable future it will look to boost trade from Britain so it will try to keep the currency low in order to assist that strategy. That is not good news for us because currency hedging is based on swings and roundabouts. If one is to have a permanent situation of equilibrium with the euro and pound sterling, that is very worrying. One has heard contributions from certain sectors, saying that they are taking a 25% hit and they wish to speak to the companies to which they export next year, seeking 25% more. I would appreciate feedback on my three questions.