Mr. Carlos Martínez Mongay:

I thank the Deputy. I will start with the most important question, the first one the Deputy asked. Why did we prepare this report without looking at Brexit? We saw what happened yesterday, and the committee is aware of all the uncertainties we face regarding what may happen today, tomorrow and in the coming days. The Deputy would agree that it is extremely difficult to consider alternative scenarios at the current juncture. We simply do not know. As such, instead of preparing one report per scenario, we have assumed that the economic relationships between the European Union and the UK will not change. In other words, that there will not be disruptions in trade or fundamental changes in the way it takes place. That will be the case if the coming two or three years are a transition period, but we do not know. I agree with the Deputy that there is a risk and his has been clearly highlighted in the report. We note that there is a downside risk, which is the possibility of a no-deal Brexit or any other alternative scenario concerning the relationship between the EU and the UK.

I agree that in some months we may have to reconsider a number of priorities or challenges. In the meantime, does this imply that the report is not useful or does not address fundamental issues? I would not say that. With or without Brexit, we will have these problems. One of the problems highlighted in the report is the low productivity of domestic indigenous companies, which calls for a series of policies related to skills, human capital and knowledge capital. This challenge will need to be addressed in any case.

Another issue that will be fundamental in any case is the need to maintain sound public finances. Again, I refer to the rainy day fund and the need for buffers in order to improve the resilience and reduce the vulnerabilities of the Irish economy. These challenges will always be there with or without Brexit. Moreover, tackling these challenges will make it easier to deal with unfavourable Brexit scenarios. That is why we felt we did not need to consider all the alternative scenarios; we simply do not know. We preferred to work on the basis of a kind of central scenario in order to analyse the various challenges and issues for the Irish economy and the problems in every market. We know that to a large extent all of this is conditional on the kind of Brexit that materialises. Even today, we do not know.

We are aware of the impact that the imposition of certain tariffs by the UK may have. The Commission has already made a series of preparations in order to make trade as fluid as possible in the worst-case scenario. This decision has been taken unilaterally by the Commission. The Government is also taking steps and considering a series of measures to reduce the frictions in trade in that case.

Public and private debt is still high. We have to be aware of this because if levels of debt are too high before a shock, there will not be room for manoeuvre in dealing with it. The Deputy says that the housing market is dysfunctional. I do not think we even suggest this possibility in the report. We state that there is an insufficient supply of housing and that this sometimes relates to the shortages of skills in the country's labour market. Ultimately, whether or not a market is dysfunctional depends on the regulatory framework. We also recognise that the Government has taken a series of steps to reduce regulatory barriers that could prevent the development of the sector.

The Deputy asked about country-specific recommendations for which progress in implementation has been more limited. I refer to measures related to the sustainability of public finances, particularly measures to increase the cost-effectiveness of healthcare.

Expenditure in that regard has increased rapidly without clear improvements in the quality or clear reasons behind this increase, such as ageing or the fact that diseases have become more significant. This relates the Deputy's first question. We still find that there have not been sufficient measures to stimulate the productivity of domestic firms. By becoming more productive, Ireland can even tackle the increase in tariffs. These are the two areas in which we think the progress has been more limited.