Mr. Fergal O'Brien:

This issue is very different from any of those geopolitical issues the Deputy mentioned. If the Irish State chooses to erect trade barriers, essentially, for US businesses operating in Ireland and Europe, it will become a very tangible issue in our relationship with the US and I suspect that something such as this would be identified by the US trade representative as a material trade barrier in the European Union. We would be moving into a different sphere than the geopolitical issues the Deputy mentioned. This would be a direct US-Ireland trade barrier issue. It would be recognised as such in the US.