Mr. John Mullins:

Senator O'Mahony's question about Brexit is very relevant. I mentioned in my opening statement that we worked with Brittany Ferries on the development of a new route from Ringaskiddy to Santander via a new bridge - a motorway of the sea type route. We have been working hard for the past 15 months to get that up and running. The feedback so far is very positive. For example, previously the fishermen in Castletownbere would have travelled through the land bridge through the UK to the Parisian markets and the Madrid markets but they now have the option of getting to Santander in 26 hours and on to Madrid within four hours. This is part and parcel of the opportunity for aquaculture and agriculture to get to Spain and for Spanish operators to come to Ireland. We hope there will be more of this in the future. In regard to motorway of the seas routes, the reason we did not get finance for equipment upgrades in respect of the Dublin-Belfast-Cork route is because funding in that regard is subject to competition and at that particular time Brexit was not a real issue. It is now a real issue for Ireland in terms of our imports and exports. Over 90% of our product is exported through our ports. When Commissioner Hogan visited the port last month I raised with him the need for a public service obligation fund to support new motorways of the sea routes out of Ireland, whether from Dublin, Galway, Cork or Waterford, to France and continental markets such as Spain. If there is a hard Brexit and it leads to major queues in Holyhead or in Fishguard this will create an enormous issue for the supply chain. We need to undertake an audit nationally of the supply chain costs of a hard Brexit for our exporters and importers and to seek recognition in that regard from Europe.