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

Unfortunately the Ministers of State, Deputy Pat Breen and Deputy John Halligan, cannot be here this afternoon due to official commitments and they asked me to pass on their apologies to the committee for their absence. Depending on the committee’s work programme, it might like to consider inviting them to a future meeting to discuss the impacts of Brexit on areas within their remit. They would both be more than happy to do this.

The committee has already heard views on Brexit from a wide range of agencies and representative bodies over the last number of weeks and I thank it for its invitation to attend today to be involved in its deliberations. Undoubtedly, our economic and cultural ties with the UK mean that its decision to leave the EU has significant and direct consequences for us. The committee will be aware there is a whole-of-Government approach in place focusing on Brexit and my Department and its agencies are to the forefront of this effort.

The UK’s decision to leave the EU will impact on all policy fields of my Department and agencies. Over the past number of months, I have tasked my Department officials with making Brexit their number one priority. In this context the Department has conducted a risk assessment of the potential impacts of Brexit across policy areas, which has fed into the national level assessment led by the Department of the Taoiseach. We have since been working with agencies to mitigate risks and maximise opportunities. To support a co-ordinated and coherent approach to Brexit across the Department and the enterprise agencies, I have also established a dedicated Brexit unit and a senior officials group with representatives from across all divisions of the Department. I established a co-ordination group on Brexit to oversee the management of our response.

The co-ordination group, which I chair, consists of the CEOs of IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland and relevant enterprise, single market and trade officials from the Department. I have also taken every opportunity to hear the view of companies operating at the coalface. I have met with a wide range of representative organisations, including IBEC, ICTU, ISME, the Small Firms Association, the Irish Exporters Association, the American Chamber of Commerce, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce and the IFA. The committee has heard from many of these groups. I have also had discussions about the impacts of Brexit at the retail consultation forum, which I chair, and it is a regular item on the agenda of the implementation committees for the regional action plans for jobs. I welcome the fact that many representative organisations have already published papers identifying challenges for their sectors. These represent valuable inputs to Government as we develop policy responses. In addition, my Department is planning a stakeholder engagement event to hear the views of all stakeholders on 30 January. I extend an invitation to this event to all the members of the committee. I have met with my EU counterparts in Brussels and my UK counterparts in London to convey the unique impact of Brexit on Ireland in advance of the commencement of the detailed exit negotiations.

I will turn now to our enterprises. Brexit presents a range of challenges but also opportunities for our companies. Some sectors will be more impacted than others, based on their dependence on the UK market and their exposure to currency fluctuations. Ireland is and will continue to be a trading nation. We are fully committed to continuing our membership of the EU and in that context we will have access to the single market of 27 countries with 450 million customers. The UK will also continue to be an important trading partner for Ireland. I want to reassure companies that we will work to preserve Ireland’s fullest market access to the UK in the framework of any future deal between the EU and the UK. Ireland already enjoys trade benefits from some 50 EU preferential trade, partnership or association agreements. We are working with the EU on the development of more ambitious and comprehensive bilateral trade agreements with third countries for the future. We are refining our analysis of risks and opportunities, examining possible models for future UK relationships with the EU, from single market membership to full exit of the customs union. This is challenging as it is still not known what relationship the UK will want to have.

My Department and the enterprise agencies are fully committed to supporting all our stakeholders in this period of uncertainty. Enterprise Ireland and the local enterprise offices are working with companies to make sure that they are better prepared to respond to the challenges that Brexit will bring, helping them to drive down costs, diversify into new markets and innovate in the way they do business. Enterprise Ireland has been systematically engaging with its 1,500 clients, employing 100,000 full-time employees, that export to the UK. Currency fluctuations are a particular issue of concern. In order for me, as Minister, to respond to this I need to fully understand what businesses need. To find out what they need, I have put in place a structured dialogue with companies of different sizes, across different sectors and regions. When fully analysed, the outputs from this work will give me a clear indication of what SMEs need to help them address this challenge. That will form the evidence base that I need in order to bring any proposals forward.

In our efforts to address the challenges posed by Brexit, we should not overlook whatever opportunities may emerge for Ireland. One such opportunity is in attracting increased foreign direct investment. I have directed IDA Ireland to explore the potential for winning more FDI as a result of Brexit and they are already working hard with this goal in mind. This will not be easy. The global FDI market is extremely competitive and we must fight hard to secure each and every new investment into Ireland. Other countries will also be doing their best to win new mobile investments. Fortunately, we can continue to rely on the selling points that make investing in Ireland attractive in the first place, including our continued membership of the EU, our talent, the ease of doing business and our tax offering. I have also secured additional capital and current funding for my Department in 2017 to help deal with the challenges and opportunities posed by Brexit. This will help the agencies to support more job creation and innovation.

I will now turn to the implications of Brexit for relationships between North and South. Our first priority is to ensure that the peace process is protected and safeguarded. I have a particular focus on the trade implications for the Border region.

We will do our utmost to protect the interests of those companies and businesses that engage in cross-Border trade and InterTradeIreland will have an important role to play in that regard. On foot of recent engagement with InterTradeIreland, we have agreed to fund a special study that it is commissioning from the ESRI on the cross-Border implications for SMEs, North and South. I have also allocated some additional funding for 2017 to support more intensive engagement by InterTradeIreland with companies. In the research and innovation area, members will be aware that the EU's Horizon 2020 programme is an important source of funding for these activities in Ireland. Horizon 2020 also provides a mechanism for researchers and companies in Ireland to network and collaborate with the best researchers and leading companies across Europe. While the UK is an important source of partners for Ireland in Horizon 2020 programmes, it is not the largest. We are well diversified in terms of international collaboration through Horizon 2020 and beyond and are already working hard to strengthen our relationships with other European countries for future collaboration.

I am aware that competitiveness concerns related to Brexit also arise in relation to employment and social rights policy, including rights for workers and the national minimum wage. The terms of any future EU-UK trading relationship will dictate with which provisions of EU law the UK will continue to comply. This has relevance in a number of policy areas across my Department, including employment rights, company law, intellectual property, standards and state aids. The issue of regulatory divergence will be one which we need to monitor closely. I conclude by noting that work in my Department and agencies will continue in terms of assessing the possible implications and impacts of Brexit. As I said at the beginning, Brexit will have a profound impact on all policy areas of my Department. However, my Department and its agencies are working hard to ensure the most advantageous outcome for Ireland and for the EU for the benefit of Irish enterprises, employees and consumers.