Ms Nicola Byrne:

Deputy Crowe asked about fiscal rules. It is a really good question. We would like to see no change to our fiscal rules; I think we have that right. If nothing had changed and the UK. had not voted for Brexit, we would not be sitting here having this conversation. We would still be talking about cost competitiveness and probably nothing else.

I agree that we are in unique circumstances in the context of Brexit. The problem for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is that, when we are out having these conversations with our counterparts, all the feedback we see from the ambassadors is that they do not care; they are not getting it at the moment. We are going out asking for special dispensations about Northern Ireland, yet nobody seems to understand the precariousness of Northern Ireland. They have all got their own competitive markets to fight for. The Romanian ambassador is keen to point out to me on a regular basis that Ireland does incredibly well and nobody understands why. It is because we were between the two giant markets of the US and the UK, and we have done particularly well because we all spoke a common language.

While we cannot dictate the fiscal rules, we have to get much louder in what we are fighting for. If it means a bigger budget for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade then the Irish Exporters Association is happy to champion that, so that its people can go out and fight a better case across Europe, with more ambassadors and more staff in all the embassies. We need to be working harder to show people the pain we are going to be in if this goes horribly wrong.