Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I do not mean this disrespectfully but the answer the Minister just gave illustrates exactly the dialogue I have been having with the Government for the past year where I say the businesses are saying they are not getting ready. We had data from the Department last year and data from AIB and InterTradeIreland. Survey after survey indicates Irish businesses are not getting ready for Brexit. We are at about 6%. Approximately one business in 20 is getting ready for Brexit. I have raised this with the Minister's predecessor and the Tánaiste. I get back a very well-meaning and what sounds like a very comprehensive list of activities. What the Minister has just said sounds very impressive yet for some reason, Enterprise Ireland, which is a superb agency, is clearly not getting through to the businesses. I meet individual businesses all over the country, as, I am sure, does the Minister on Brexit. I meet their representative groups and ask them whether their people are being contacted proactively and whether they are getting the supports they need. The answer is "No". The Minister does not have to take my word or indeed her word for it. The sector-wide surveys, including from the Department, say that Ireland's SMEs are not getting ready for Brexit. Enterprise Ireland is a superb State agency with superb people working in it. I have no doubt that the Minister and her officials want Ireland's SMEs to be ready for Brexit but it is not working so that long list she read out is not getting through. We all want the same thing on Brexit. We want our companies to be ready for it. Could a review be carried out to investigate why only one in 20 businesses has a plan for Brexit when so much money has been spent and there has been so much activity from a top State agency?