Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The all-island economy is now very significant. Did the ESRI have a look at the likely impact on Northern Ireland? I know the institute is not responsible for Northern Ireland but interactions among the Border counties, on both sides of the Border, are very intense. Will the witnesses cast any light on how bad the impact might be? A lot of business people in the North are very scared, as are the trade unions.

Many small firms appear to be completely at sea. My background is as an accountant and people are constantly asking me what I think they will have to do. I explain that, in a small agribusiness firm of between three and five people, there is likely to be an extra set of tax returns or the equivalent. In that context, I was a bit surprised at an answer I received from the Minister for Finance the week before last to the effect that there are only 210 Revenue staff in the southern Border counties who work as Customs and Excise or compliance people. We have heard repeatedly about the 400 to 600 people being recruited, but did anybody ask the ESRI to look at what Revenue is saying will happen? Nobody wants checks on the Border and they could perhaps be done some distance away. How will we actively get ready for Brexit and advise people what they have to do? The knowledge gap for small businesses close to the Border, on either side, is very intense.

There has been a very big fall-off in hotel bookings from Britain, particularly along the Border. Does the ESRI have any way of monitoring that? People are working very hard to make up for the lack of bookings by using other sources. Does the ESRI have any information or intelligence on this?

How low is sterling likely to go?

Newspapers such as the Financial Times have been constantly surprised that, perhaps because people have been stocking up on goods, the UK economy has not fallen that much. Have the witnesses looked at that and whether it will fall back if the deed actually happens? Of the alternatives to the withdrawal agreement, what would have the least impact on Ireland, for example, the combination of the Single Market, customs union and other things? We may have to find language, as has been done in many other agreements, that sets it out in a slightly different format.