Mr. Kevin Sherry:

I will address Senator Daly's question on the replication of a trading arrangement similar to East and West Germany and also Senator McDowell's question on a common trading area. Enterprise Ireland's approach to this has been that any sort of barriers that exist in trade and freedom of trade is not good for our client companies. We see that as an issue. Ideally, we would like the current position to pertain, but that is not the case. We have fed strongly into our own parent Department and to other Government Departments that are looking at this issue. We have also seconded one of our own colleagues to the Department of Taoiseach to specifically focus on the sectors we feel there is strong vulnerability in terms of Enterprise Ireland client companies.

We are working across Government in terms of the inputs to that agenda. My colleague, Mr. Garrett Murray, may want to contribute further on that.