Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá cúpla ceist agamsa. My first questions are for Enterprise Ireland. A good chunk of indigenous Irish businesses is more exposed on the effects of Brexit, having more exports to Britain. Those businesses are also more regionally distributed than foreign direct investment is typically. Has Enterprise Ireland been asked to define exactly what it wants from a Brexit negotiation? Is there a specific unit in Enterprise Ireland to deal with Brexit? If so, how many staff are in it and what kind of budget does it have? What is Enterprise Ireland's budget to deal with Brexit? What discussions has Enterprise Ireland had with the Department on spatial strategy? What kind of input has it had? Could Mr. McDonnell answer that question too? Has ISME had any negotiations or discussions with the Department on that issue?

Can the figures on jobs be broken down into rural areas? Typically a rural area is considered to be an area outside a large to medium-sized town. Are there specific figures for those areas? While the distribution of Enterprise Ireland jobs is much better than that of IDA Ireland jobs, they are still not distributed evenly throughout the State. There are pockets that do not have the same level of Enterprise Ireland jobs. For example, the figures for County Kildare, which is a successful county in terms of Enterprise Ireland jobs, dwarf those of other comparable counties in terms of distance from Dublin and population. What are the witnesses' thoughts on that?

What percentage of ISME member firms export to Britain? What are its rural members' needs in terms of exports to Britain?

What do both organisations think of specific enterprise zones that are designed to give those who locate there a specific advantage? At the moment there is a debate on Border development zones for certain areas along the Border given that the Border itself is a limiting element on enterprise and perhaps will be more so with a Brexit. Have the witnesses given any thought to what a Border development zone would like and what it should comprise? Sin iad mo cheisteanna.