Mr. Arnold Dillon:

I will pick up on a number of the points that were raised. The first one was from Senator McDowell about solutions. IBEC is a large organisation. We have 7,500 members and IBEC is also the umbrella group for more than 40 sectoral associations. Intense work is being conducted on where solutions can be found in the context of what is a very uncertain and difficult political backdrop. There is increased scope for some of those solutions in specific areas, depending on the competencies. In terms of the common travel area, there is potential for greater imaginative solutions. Other areas may be somewhat more dependent on the future trade relationship and part of the work in that regard will include lobbying but also digging down to see if we can get more of a meeting of minds and bring the two parties to a closer position. There will be technical, technological and regulatory solutions to try to make those future relationships as seamless as possible.

They will create as much continuity as possible with the existing relationships and we will set out the details of those in due course. Our members are actively engaged across all different sectors and policy headings.

We were asked about lobbying in Europe. IBEC and our sectoral associations have been incredibly active in Ireland and in Europe. As the Government has been doing, we have been putting up in lights the unique Irish situation and our unique exposure. This needs to be done before we can get traction on some of the other proposals and the EU guidelines reflect an appreciation of that. Irish business has been ahead of the curve in this area and we have an office in Brussels for this purpose. We are actively engaged on an ongoing basis with the EU institutions and there has been open engagement with Michel Barnier's task force, as well as that of the Council. Solutions are now required and IBEC will be actively working on that basis. We will engage with the institutions and through our umbrella group, BusinessEurope, with a lot of other European business federations. We will not only do this in Brussels but will bring our ideas and the Irish perspective to the capitals of Europe and to key member states and influencers across the EU.

All-island institutions are a big priority for IBEC. We have been working with the CBI in Northern Ireland on a joint business council for some time and from long before the peace process came to fruition. It has been a forum where politics can be left at the door and progress can be made on issues of shared interest. An enormous amount of development has happened in this area since the peace process came to fruition and there is now a massive danger that some of the positive developments will take a step backwards with Brexit. The trade relationship could be affected by a customs border and regulatory issues. EU funding streams may be affected and solutions will be needed at EU and UK level to ensure existing projects and vital future projects continue. The economic element is a core part of the normalisation of politics on this island.

We were asked about the relocation of Irish companies into the UK and state aid issues. I will touch on them briefly and Mr. Brady of the economics team will talk about state aids in particular. The first thing is to decide what is under our control and Irish cost competitiveness is top of that list. It is important not to take legislative decisions that increase the burden on employers, that our tax position is competitive vis-à-visthe UK and that we can be proud of our business tax offering. Even long before Brexit, the UK was making its business tax offering more attractive and Ireland needs to be cognisant of that as it will be accentuated post-Brexit. The investment agenda has been a priority for IBEC. We are already seeing significant bottlenecks in the economy and a massive investment programme needs to be put in place to ensure that even if wider external threats cause us problems, our own economic limitations will not trip us up.

On state aids, Mr. Brady will talk about what is possible and feasible in terms of supports for Irish business in the context of Brexit.