Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I attended that event. It was organised in conjunction with Enterprise Ireland and it was about giving businesses a briefing and information on Brexit. There was a facilitator present. It was a very good event and a good number of companies - approximately 100 - were represented. InterTradeIreland is a cross-border body and the funding is provided on a 2:1 basis by my Department and its counterpart in Northern Ireland, the Department for the Economy. The funding arrangement is a complicating factor when it comes to increasing financial support for InterTradeIreland. We provided it with additional funding this year of €165,000 to undertake a range of initiatives for small and medium enterprises, SMEs, in the Republic. What Deputy Niall Collins mentioned was one of those events. Its goal was to help them adapt to the changed circumstances. It will involve the provision of factual advice, supports for capability building and the provision of other specialist expertise for companies. It is also doing a Brexit trade accelerator voucher, which is valued at €2,000. It will be provided to companies to engage suitably experienced sectoral advisers and to provide one-off advice on selected topics to SMEs as required. We have given them additional funding but because of the agreement on a cross-border basis, there is match funding. Whenever we increase our funding, there is match funding so normally funding is increased on both sides according to the ratio. We have given them some increased funding.