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

What I am seeing is that businesses are engaging. Enterprise Ireland is working closely with businesses. Some businesses may not be impacted by Brexit. I do not know who AIB surveyed. As the Deputy noted, Enterprise Ireland is a wonderful agency and is working very closely with businesses. Initially, people did not think this was going to happen. There was an idea among some businesses that maybe this is not going to happen. We have been putting the message out strongly that we will negotiate the best possible position for Ireland but in the meantime, businesses should prepare and do what any business would do, which is to identify risks and mitigate against them. We have identified the issues. To mitigate against them, we need businesses to look again at competitiveness, diversification and investment in innovation. We are helping businesses to do that. We have done a huge amount of work and are continuing to engage with companies to understand. We are carrying out surveys to understand the dynamics of Brexit on SMEs. This is informing our approach and has led to initiatives such as the Brexit loan fund. We are talking to these guys and are asking them what they want and how can we help them. I do not see what more we can do. As the saying goes, you can bring a horse to water but you cannot make it drink. At the end of the day, it is up to businesses to avail of all these supports. These are supports we have developed because we have been talking to businesses and this is what they are saying.