Ms Kerry Curran:

I can answer that. We do not have an exact figure for businesses in the South trading in the North because of the way data on firms is collected by the CSO. We have hard data from the Intrastat returns from cross-Border traders. The firms in question are trading above a €635,000 threshold. We have solid numbers from Intrastat. The rest of the data we have are survey data. According to the all-island business monitor, which has been going for approximately ten years, approximately 20% of firms in the South are trading in the North. That has been the average number over the past ten years. However, actual solid statistical numbers from the CSO do not exist.