Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. Their presentation is an excellent example of an organisation that is up and running and is ready to meet the challenges of Brexit. I congratulate Enterprise Ireland on that.

An issue I have raised with every group I have met during our meetings on this topic is the issue of a hard and soft Brexit. It will be an extremely disorganised Brexit rather than hard or soft. Some elements may be hard and others soft and some elements may take years to resolve. That is a particular problem for me.

I congratulate Enterprise Ireland on the scorecard. Organisations working through Enterprise Ireland have a place to go to which will give them some indication of where they stand as they move forward.

Does Enterprise Ireland have sufficient resources to provide all the supports it needs? Is there anything it wants from Government or from the Oireachtas which would ease the work it is doing or support it in a better way?

In respect of market diversification, the figures Enterprise Ireland has given for our reliance on the British market are generally macro figures. When we get down to the micro level, Brexit may be fatal for some organisations. A question that was put to me some time ago was the case of the small artisan or single product producer, such as a husband and wife team working on the production of cheese which they export to the United Kingdom only. They do not have the resources to put a marketing organisation in place. Does Enterprise Ireland see a need for a separate marketing group to provide marketing for small organisations that cannot provide for marketing? I am not sure how it would work.

At present because of the Border, we have raw materials coming from one part of the jurisdiction into another jurisdiction with some processing taking place and the product going across the Border to be completed. That would seem to be a problem if tariffs were to apply on the way in and on the way out. My constant plea is for solutions. Has Enterprise Ireland a solution that we can offer to Michel Barnier and the various other negotiators that will help us overcome those types of problems? We cannot have a situation where we are paying tariffs on both sides. We also have the ridiculous situation where a farmer has cattle in Northern Ireland in the morning and in South in the afternoon. That does not bear thinking about.

I thank the witnesses. Its presentation shows that Enterprise Ireland has its foot on the pedal and is working hard. I congratulate it. I am very pleased with it.