Mr. John McGrane:

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Seanadóir.

I will let Mr. Lynam speak on the point on specific efficacy on specific items which the Senator mentioned. I will just take up an earlier point in the Senator’s remarks, which we appreciate, about the UK market. Some 65 million people on our neighbouring island still have to eat. Irish food is their preferred imported food. They prefer Irish steak. They prefer meals made in Monaghan that are shipped overnight on a chill truck and placed on a supermarket shelf at exactly 8.08 a.m. the following morning before they lose their time slot, and at very good value pricing. That is their preference. It is somewhat discommoded for the time being. However, business does a remarkable thing. When something gets disrupted, the business environment assimilates that quickly and puts it all back together again.

One can be sure that great Irish business people, and great business people generally on these islands, are always looking at the ways and means to cope with what is put in front of them. They do not mind change at all, as long as they can plan for it. That is the only thing. Business is about change and about responding to change in consumers’ habits, preferences and competition – all those great things that keep us keen. We just like to have a bit of notice that change is coming. That is what we fundamentally say about the protocol. The protocol can probably be helped by reaching an understanding, in some suitable way. If it is not alignment, then there can be a new word. Politics is great at creating words like, say, “consistency”. We will not become inconsistent without giving reasonable notice to the businesses that have to adapt. Sin scéal eile.

I take the Senator's point about the underlying market. One of the best things Ireland has done in the last while is the opening of Enterprise Ireland’s new office in Manchester. It serves the midlands, the north west, the Liverpool area and the north east - a thriving new area, being massively invested in by the British Government in the levelling up agenda. Now Ireland and Irish businesses, led by a wonderful agency like Enterprise Ireland, has an opportunity with boots on the ground to develop partnerships with British businesses. My colleague, Mr. Molloy, and the rest of our team hold an online trade mission event roughly every week. As a result of Covid-19, we can do stuff online that used to take three days, with flying over and back, planning, debriefing and all those things. We have numerous businesses from the north east of England now in contact with numerous businesses from all parts of Ireland. They are looking at how they can work together to jointly prosper from the levelling up agenda in the north of England. Although Enterprise Ireland of course encourages Irish businesses to expand into other markets, it is by no means losing interest in the UK. We absolutely encourage the work that it does and support it in every way that we can.

I refer to Border businesses, which was the Senator’s second point. I come from County Louth which, as most of members will know, is the epicentre of modern civilisation but even allowing for lesser counties along the Border, the reality is that Border people have always traded across the Border. The bigger opportunity is actually for people a little bit further away to have a look at this new paradigm and to say that when all the noise dies down, Northern Ireland will have a special ticket. It will be able to trade pretty well unfettered, bar a few forms here and there, which I do not diminish, with the wonderful market of 60 million people that is Great Britain. It will be able to trade completely unfettered with the 450 million consumer market that is the EU. That is a phenomenal advantage. There is no other country in the world that has that type of joint opportunity to trade with two magnificently large and culturally easy-to-service markets.

Once the noise does die down, I expect we will see not only English businesses on the other island, but also businesses from Kerry, Cork and Galway, looking at the Northern Ireland story. They will say that it is in their joint interest to both invest in their home county and to look at the investment opportunity and the appropriate opportunity of Northern Ireland as a base for serving the market in Great Britain. These things remain to be coloured in in greater detail, but one can be sure that business abhors a vacuum. Once the conditions permit, we will be thinking very actively about people resuming investment into what could be a very interesting investment zone within these islands.

We, as an apolitical trade body, would love to see Northern Ireland win the opportunity that it so badly needs out of this. I might defer to Mr. Lynam, my senior colleague and our policy director, on the Senator’s specific point on the processes by which we work with Government. We greatly appreciate the Government agencies and Department officials that we work with on our advocacy.