Mr. Paul Kelly:

It is a rate of 88p to the euro. We are obviously in or about that. We have been above it over the past number of months. As one goes beyond rates of 88p and 90p to the euro, the problem becomes significantly worse. All indications are that we are going to have suffer a weak sterling for a significant period of time.

The other thing to bear in mind is that while we, hopefully, will avoid the worst-case scenario of a hard Brexit, there is a strong likelihood that we will face customs barriers and will have to face the transactional costs of dealing with those, as well as veterinary inspections for many food products with the associated costs and time incurred. We need to ensure that we can control our cost base to mitigate against all of this. We strongly agree with Mr. O'Brien's comments that the primary concerns are labour costs, poorly designed regulation and rising insurance costs. From our perspective, it is also imperative that we take measures to improve utility and transport costs to provide a hedge against future possible cost increases as a result of Brexit. At this point in time, energy, waste and water costs in Ireland are relatively competitive but we need to bear in mind that they are large cost items for business, particularly agrifood, so we need to ensure that we maintain our good position regarding those cost items. We need continued policy measures such as completing major cost-reducing infrastructure projects. We need to minimise further increases in the public service obligation levy as regards energy costs and to avoid introducing legislation that would needlessly undermine cost-effectiveness in the waste sector. We need to ensure that responsibility for cost competitiveness issues, which is dispersed across multiple Departments and local government bodies, is centralised. We echo the IBEC recommendation that we have a single point of political responsibility for cost competitiveness in Ireland.