Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We are seeing many of the benefits already such as a 78% increase in exports of goods to Canada and a 44% increase in service exports. That is benefiting Irish jobs and businesses. It is increasing tax revenues to fund our public services, and that is only getting started. There is an opportunity to build on that, particularly for SMEs. As I mentioned earlier, when the rules of trade are clear, when there are fewer taxes, charges, customs and barriers, and when legal systems are clear, that benefits them more than the bigger companies with the bigger resources. We are only getting started in terms of the potential of this agreement.

Canada is a market of 38 million people. It is not as large as other markets. This is one of many trade agreements that we have made. I mentioned South Korea, Mexico and others. There will be more in the future. It is not as big as Japan, for example. I am only stating the obvious here. It is a country that we can have successful trading relations with building on what is there, and the fact that we have this similar culture - English speaking - is an advantage for us within the EU.