Mr. Neil McDonnell:

It is not unique to this committee but we have argued for some time that while IDA Ireland does an excellent job of attracting large foreign enterprises to Ireland, and Enterprise Ireland works really well with what it would refer to as its client companies among the high-tech, export oriented sectors, I have heard estimates from very reputable bodies such as the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland which estimate that 600,000 of the 900,000 people working in active SMEs are not catered for by an industrial body that is tailored to indigenous enterprise. Given what is occurring because of Brexit as well as the potential rise of protectionism in the US, which perversely has a greater effect on our large enterprises, we understand they have a larger dollar exposure than the SME sector.

Now is the time for a fundamental reappraisal of our indigenous industry. We believe that we need a dedicated body to do that or we need our own version of Enterprise Ireland, EI. We are not prescriptive, but we need that.