Dr. Pat Ivory:

I thank the Chairman, Deputy Durkan and Senator Craughwell for their comments and questions. I will take the questions on the make-up of the European Union and its future challenges. We took some encouragement from the European parliamentary elections, which resulted in a more fragmented European Parliament but without a dramatic swing to either the far right or the far left. Even though the European People's Party, of which Fine Gael is a member, has lost an overall majority in the parliament, it is still the largest block. The SND also has a significant number of seats; the new group, Renew Europe, of which President Macron's En Marche party is part, is also a significant block; and the Greens are a significant block, having made gains here in Ireland, with two MEPs elected, and in other member states. We are encouraged by the fact that the fear of a big swing to the nationalism of the past did not materialise. We can all work towards a good next five years for the EU and its institutions.

Senator Craughwell raised the issue of high-tech industry. Clearly, there are challenges for Ireland and we have to face up to those. The world is changing and developing, with a lot of focus on how new industries will be taxed in the future. It has always been IBEC's position that unilateral action by member states of the Union should not be tolerated and that the right way to do this is through an international tax agreement between all the players involved. The place to do that is the OECD. Through its affiliation with business, IBEC has participated significantly in the OECD's work on international tax questions. A second wave of new international tax rules is being worked on and we expect that progress will be made and those rules will be published in 2020. We have told the European Union, through the Commission and our business partners in different member states, that we should act together on this rather than have piecemeal, unilateral moves, which will lead to a suboptimal outcome for everybody. We are deeply involved in that work. The director general of business at the OECD was in Ireland for the international energy conference. I met him on Monday night and he was in IBEC yesterday, where we talked more about this important element of the OECD work on international tax rules.

We also need to ensure that we have the right skills sets in Ireland to make sure that companies find it attractive to remain here, regardless of what happens in the international tax scene. A key part of that is having the right skills, and we are 100% supportive of increasing investment in third level education in Ireland. We have been working with Mr. Jim Miley and his team to raise awareness of the need to invest in our universities and their infrastructure, as we do in other elements of the education system. We also have a campaign on infrastructure investment, and I will pass over to Mr. Arnold Dillon, who will comment on that.

The issue of the Border was raised. The Single Market cannot be compromised, and we have worked on this with our European business partners. Over the weekend, on the third anniversary of the Brexit decision, we were very happy to see the German business group state publicly that it still fully supports the withdrawal agreement. The chief executive of our counterparts in Germany fully supports the withdrawal agreement, the backstop and the need to ensure that the Single Market is not compromised. That gives us not only support but responsibility; Ireland has to ensure that it plays its part in the European protection of the Single Market.

The backstop is about much more than the Single Market. It is also about the Good Friday Agreement and the peace process. This morning, we had a meeting in IBEC with the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Helen McEntee.

One of the things that we were very encouraged by was the way she answered a question asked by one of our members. She said that the funding for the PEACE programme is going to be extended, which is welcome. The Good Friday Agreement and peace on the island of Ireland are vitally important to the citizens and businesses, and not only the people who do business with the UK. Our position on the Border is clear. We feel that the withdrawal agreement should be accepted and we should have a transition period. If we reach a no-deal outcome then we will need to re-examine the area, particularly the transition that business will need because we do not believe that the authorities, business or State agencies in Ireland or across Europe will be fully prepared for the catastrophic impact of a no-deal exit.

We met representatives of Make UK, which is the largest manufacturing representative body in the UK and was formerly known as the Engineering Employers Federation. Yesterday, we met its representatives in IBEC and talked about the very significant challenges that their members are facing. We are working with them to try to make sure that we can help them as much as possible and also because our membership has such a deep integration and involvement in the UK market, and in UK manufacturing for the food and drink area and the pharma medtech area. Later I shall discuss the relationship with the US but my colleague, Mr. Dillon, will now comment on campaigns and their funding.