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

I thank the Chair for giving me an opportunity to explain that. Brexit will have an impact on our exporters. Enterprise Ireland deals with that client base here in Ireland. It has been dealing with approximately 1,500 companies on a weekly or daily basis since last year's referendum in the UK. It has contacted each of those companies to go through their accounts. It knows the weaknesses in those companies. It works with them. Enterprise Ireland has 32 offices abroad. We are going to try to diversify so that companies affected by currency fluctuations are able to sell into markets. Deputies will be aware that approximately ten years ago, 45% of Irish indigenous companies were selling straight into the UK. That number has since decreased. It is important that we diversify into other countries and meet the companies. That is why we have our marketing programme, all of our trade missions and our St. Patrick's Day programme. Enterprise Ireland micro-manages when it goes in, for example by helping companies to become leaner and more competitive so that they can compete with other companies. We will keep a watching brief on Enterprise Ireland and IDA Ireland. We tend to forget about the LEOs, which are the jewels in the crown because they have created 3,500 jobs so far this year. There are some counties where IDA Ireland might not be creating as many jobs as we would like, but if one looks across the line at Enterprise Ireland and the LEOs, one will often see that far more jobs are being created in such counties. Every single job matters, regardless of whether it is being created by Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland or the LEOs.