Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Enterprise Ireland has examined all of the companies that are exporting. Obviously, we have lost €500 million in value terms because of the change in sterling. There are a number of options. For example, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine introduced a long-term, low interest loan for agri-business. The Government's preparation has been extensive. It includes contingency work carried out before the referendum. We are examining the possibility of having funding from European sources to help us with this, hedging forward, insurance credit and a number of new firms to give insurance for the low margin agri sector exporting to Britain. The Central Bank has pre-established contingency plans to deal with market volatility surrounding the referendum result and it is engaging with the Department of Finance and individual financial institutions regarding risks. Actions by the ECB and the other global players will be monitored closely. Budget 2017 contained a specific number of measures to assist exports affected by the volatility, including new resources for the enterprise agencies to put more people in place in foreign markets to help Irish businesses, new schemes related to risk sharing under development, the agri-food package of measures and maintaining strong support for the tourism sector with the 9% VAT rate. These are some of the areas where the Government has made an impact on this.

In the speech I made yesterday in the Mansion House about Brexit in general I pointed out that we will have to look to Europe for assistance, given the outcome of some of the issues that will arise from the Brexit negotiations. In other words, Ireland will have to seek particular assistance from Europe arising from these negotiations. It may well be that some of that might have to be examined in the context of some of the companies the Deputy mentions.