Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome our guests and thank them for attending. As I was attending another meeting, I apologise if I raise something that was painstakingly dealt with. However, it is important that people receive very clear answers, even twice to the same questions, as they are very anxious about this issue. I come from County Cavan where it is particularly serious and already depressing the local economy, given the expectations and fears about it. In my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan not only is it depressing the economy, it is also halting potential expansion because people are unsure about where they will go. There is a litany of problems and dangerous results, apart from the brief of the Central Bank of Ireland and the focus on macro issues surrounding the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process. While the fallout is within the brief of the Central Bank, strictly the actual mechanics are not. Therefore, we will stick as near as we can to financial matters. That is to set the context for my questions.

Assuming there will be a hard Brexit, is there any merit in looking at the Central Bank's overall lending guidelines as a stimulus to the economy of the Border region and the wider economy? Is there potential for a change in lending policy and almost a Keynesian solution to inject money into the economy? Has the Central Bank given that matter any thought?

Teagasc has carried out research in this area. Has the Central Bank quantified the implications for agriculture and the agrifood industry? This relates to my previous question about lending rules and so on. Has the Central Bank thought about potential solutions in that regard? While there has been an increase in property prices in the Border region in which I live, I sense it is being halted or slowed because of the level of apprehension. Has the Central Bank thought about the implications for property prices and does it foresee a fall in them post Brexit? Is there any cause for alarm in that regard? Do the delegates want to venture a solution or engage in commentary on this issue which is not an easy one?

I am interested in the question of financial services. Will the delegates quantify for us the degree to which financial services are migrating here because of the potential for a breakaway by the United Kingdom and a hard Brexit? Are we gaining anything? If so, is there joy for my region? Without being ridiculously parochial, do the delegates see any potential for the location of new financial services in the region? How does the Central Bank see the currency question developing as we try to navigate our way through what might be a hard Brexit, although we would like the Border to be seamless?

I have mentioned agriculture. I do not want to be alarmist; I am simply reflecting points raised at all of the meetings I have attended with local sectoral groupings. There is gloom, apprehension and fear, particularly in the Border region, although I accept that it is a national issue, as reflected in all of the contributions made. Are there potential opportunities for the Border region? Is there anything I could say to my neighbours when they ask me what I did today for the great taxpayers of the country? Could I say I was at a meeting with the Central Bank and that it told me that there would be potential in a post-Brexit scenario or that, sadly, they told me that there would not be any? I am interested in the answer to that question. Please God, at the end of the day, none of this will apply, but we cannot afford not to be ready.