Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank Mr. Fagan for his submission. To begin where the Chairman left off, it has been alleged in some media outlets and anecdotally that the Central Bank is too restrictive and conservative in its authorisations and that we run the risk of missing opportunities. While I understand the point Mr. Fagan made on that, is he happy that the bank is going to strike an adequate balance between the need to attract new financial services and banking, employment and trading opportunities for the country and the need to operate proper restrictive practices? That has been alleged and I am interested to hear the response.

How much of a bonus will we see? One of the opportunities in Brexit is that we might attract new financial services to augment business here. We are being told that Frankfurt is going to win the lion's share. How optimistic is Mr. Fagan? I acknowledge that he will not want to be overly speculative, but what is his sense of that opportunity from Brexit in the event that our previous distinguished speaker and former Taoiseach, John Bruton, is not correct in his hope that Britain will not leave?

I turn to trading arrangements. Assuming that there is a form of customs agreement, does Mr. Fagan rule out completely the prospect of free trade? We have obviously had a huge achievement in the area of free movement of people, which has been well discussed and documented in the last few days. It is not necessarily totally a matter of Mr. Fagan's remit. In any event, the achievements there are to be noted and were a critical first set of achievements. Now, however, the major focus is on trade in respect of which there was a somewhat disappointing report this morning from accountants. Does Mr. Fagan see any hope of the status quocontinuing to obtain? In the event that it does not, what levels of custom duty will apply in practice? How greatly would they devalue our exports? What sectors of the community will be hit? Am I right in thinking that agriculture is under huge threat and that some agricultural exports may not be viable?

Mr. Fagan referred to transition arrangements. Is he hopeful of a delay? Can he elaborate on what he meant in saying that we might achieve tariff-free trade in goods but not services? I am interested in teasing out, in practical layman's terms, how Mr. Fagan sees Brexit impacting on specific exports in the cost added, the degree to which value will be weakened and the degree to which the domestic economy is threatened. How will arrangements unfold? Will people have to pay direct customs? If there were no customs, would a monitoring process for goods crossing the Border still be required as it will be a frontier between the EU and UK? Will there have to be a checking of goods at that level involving a cost for exporters? What are the nuts and bolts of how Mr. Fagan envisages it working so that we can be informed in our discussions with the sectors seeking to discuss the matter with us?