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

On 6 December Mr. Michel Barnier gave his first press conference since being appointed the EU Commission's chief Brexit negotiator. On that occasion he noted that we are in uncharted territory and explained his personal understanding of border issues on the island of Ireland. He also underlined his commitment to preserving the success of the Good Friday Agreement. I believe the European Commission understands our position. It is our job to ensure the Commission understands our unique relationship and that the status of Northern Ireland is protected in the negotiations.

The Deputy also inquired about infrastructure. The Commission did mention infrastructure. Ireland's selling points are that we speak English and we have a good track record, skills base and education system. Some deficits have been highlighted and one of them is housing. As the Deputy will know, the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government is bringing a housing plan through the Houses and has called on funding to be made available in the budget. We must work our way through this matter. During the recession there was no investment in housing and now we must tackle the housing deficit.

I became Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation eight months ago. I recall that during the first few weeks of taking up office, which was when the UK referendum took place, I continually heard about a shortage of office space. More office space has come on the market and the problem is righting itself. We should promote the positive things, particularly when selling Ireland abroad. Broadband is an infrastructural deficit, especially in rural and regional Ireland. The Minister for Communications, Climate and Environment, Deputy Naughten, is working on the broadband service. I am sorry that we did not have adequate infrastructure in place when Ireland enjoyed better times but we are catching up. The development of ports and airports is an issue for the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. I know that such development is on his agenda.

As a small open country we sell quite a lot to the UK every week. Recently Enterprise Ireland reported that ten years ago the Republic was 45% dependent on exports to the UK but that figure has now been reduced to 37%. We rely on external demand. Direct trade between Ireland and the UK is worth €1.2 billion and sustains 100,000 jobs here and almost the same amount of jobs in the UK. Exports to the UK represents 17% of our overall exports. We export 16.9% to the UK, over 7% to Belgium and Germany and 4.8% to France. The UK is a substantial market for our exports but we are diversifying. Enterprise Ireland is working on diversification and it is important that we increase our efforts.

Enterprise Ireland has held meetings with the 1,500 members of its client base that export into the UK. Enterprise Ireland has identified the companies that may be under pressure and one aspect of that conversation has been diversification. We will seek to preserve the fullest market access to the UK in the framework of a future trade agreement between the EU and the UK. Access by the UK to the Single Market must be based on acceptance of the four freedoms of goods, service, capital and people. That is the stated position of the other 27 EU countries.