Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for her presentation and I have three questions relating to programme A. The first relates to Brexit business supports and the Minister would not be surprised at that as I have raised this with her a number of times. I am still concerned about the low uptake of Brexit business supports. I have said a number of times that the figure I have now is 81 loans with a value of €17.3 million being given from the €300 million Brexit support loan scheme, amounting to 6% of the total pot. There have been 241 market discovery grants approved and just 156 Be Prepared grants sanctioned. Does the Minister believe these initiatives have not been successful? If they have not been successful, what do we need to do to ensure better uptake of them?

I understand there is uncertainty around Brexit and the crazy position in which we find ourselves. People are transfixed by their televisions and watching what is going on in Westminster. It is difficult and Deputy Kelleher indicated that uncertainty is causing much stress in companies. What more can we do to ensure the loans that are supposedly available are more easily accessible? There is clearly a problem when only 6% of the pot has been given out.

The next question relates to Enterprise Ireland and specifically equity stakes. We spoke about this before. The most recent information I have is that of the 709 companies in which Enterprise Ireland holds shares, only two are investments over 30% and the vast majority of holdings are less than 10%. What is the Government policy on this and has the Government a preferred policy regarding the percentage of holdings in companies supported by Enterprise Ireland?

The third question relates to the concern of many business groups I have met about diversifying markets. Will the Minister outline the actions she is taking specifically to diversify our markets? Figures from IDA Ireland-supported companies indicate a huge 54% of 753 such companies are from the United States. That level of concentration would leave our economy vulnerable to external political or economic changes in any country of origin. It is a particular concern. Additionally, Enterprise Ireland's exports performance in the global market for 2017 indicated that just 1% of our exports went to Latin America, with just 9% of exports going to southern Europe, the Middle East and all of Africa and India. Meanwhile, 34% still went to Britain. We very much need to diversify our markets further. Will the Minister update us on Enterprise Ireland's plans to increase its presence in those areas?