Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the representatives of the three agencies for attending at the committee. They have a very difficult task. The first time they attended here 18 months ago, we talked about the uncertainty and we are still experiencing that to a certain extent. This morning the Taoiseach confirmed that the legal text would be agreed tomorrow at 12 o'clock so hopefully we will get some certainty from it. This morning I read shocking comments made by the Foreign Secretary in England. He said there was no need for an Irish Border after Brexit because there is no hard border between the London boroughs of Camden and Westminster. He also suggested that British and EU negotiators could seek inspiration from London where congestion charges are automatically applied to commuters driving in the centre of London. He said there was no border between Islington, Camden and Westminster. I lived in the borough of Camden and travelled to work in Grosvenor Gardens, which is in the City of Westminster.

At the same time, there was a border in Ireland so I know exactly what a border does and does not look like. I think his comments were really dangerous and clueless. I do not know what he is talking about and I really fear where the Tory Party is leading the English people but that is not what we are here for today.

I have a few questions for InterTradeIreland. I looked at its figure of 92%. I think it started with 98% and the figure then dropped to 96%. I know it is difficult to get it lower than that because we do not know what we are dealing with but I look forward to the InterTradeIreland report on cross-Border trade and supply linkage. I assume that might lead some companies in the middle of supply chain that might not even know they are exporting to the UK or vice versato wake up. InterTradeIreland's Start to Plan programme involves providing an allowance of €2,000 per company. The witnesses said the uptake of that in the Border counties is good but not so good in Munster or Ulster. Are there plans to reach out to other areas?

Can the witnesses from IDA Ireland tell me which companies or sector are particularly exposed to Brexit? Reference was made to the fact that most larger companies are - I will not use the word "okay" - pretty much up to score on it. I have a question for Enterprise Ireland about the scorecard. It has produced 2,100. How many supported companies have been given grants by Enterprise Ireland? Does Enterprise Ireland have a record of that? How many of these companies would say they are Brexit-ready?