Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Monday, 29 March 2021

Seanad Committee on the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union

Impact of Brexit on Business Sector: Discussion

Mr. Giles O'Neill:

Ms Sinnamon has covered it well. Believe me, there was nobody more anxious about the statistic referred to that one in five companies had not done anything towards the last quarter of last year. That was keeping everybody awake at night. Now we find that four in five companies are well on the way and only one in five is not. That was challenging but, as Ms Sinnamon stated , there were two main reasons. One was Covid and the fact that companies were otherwise distracted and had other priorities. The second was the outcome of the negotiations, which we probed in depth. Deal or no deal, there were going to be customs requirements but there was a mistaken belief out there that if a deal was done, it would all go away but that was not the case. That is why we geared up in quarter 1 to support those companies that needed help to get things sorted out as they were trading.

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