Mr. Ian Talbot:

I thank Deputy Bruton for his work in the role in the past as Minister in a previous Government. Businesses can be incredibly adaptable but they just need to know what they are dealing with.

The sooner we can get information to businesses on the impact of the targets, on things like the future plan for carbon taxation, where investment is going to be and the order of it, the better. Businesses will adapt. It is a simple thing but as Deputy Bruton was talking, I was thinking about the fact that 14 months ago we were all talking about the problems we were going to have with Brexit if the land bridge through the UK ran into problems. We had virtually no direct routes between Ireland and continental Europe but now we have something like 35 direct routes. That happened pretty much overnight, in the first week of January last year. Businesses will and can adapt; they just need to know what they are going to adapt to. There are lots of challenges but the impact is going to be easier on the business community which is more used to adapting than other sectors. The big challenge for us is to bring our consumers, our buyers, along for the ride. It is going to be an exciting ride.