Mr. Gerry Harrahill:

I do not wish to make a generalisation but I would be surprised if there was a significant number of SMEs that saw AEO status as being not even so much appropriate for their businesses as beneficial for them. There may be other simplifications that are far less onerous. In terms of a cost, there is no cost as we do not charge. There are people who put themselves forward to advise businesses about the best way to go about it and they will charge for that. One could argue with regard to many of the controls required for AEO that if one is running a good, tight, efficient, financially well managed business one will have most of those processes and procedures in place. That has been our experience. For well managed and well run businesses, getting AEO is not straightforward but does not represent a major hurdle.