Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 23 September 2025
Committee on Budgetary Oversight
Pre-Budget Engagement (Resumed)
2:00 am
Dr. Robert Kelly:
I am not saying they are. At this point, we should not necessarily lean into that direction. I am not saying right now there is a set of supports but I am saying we should not necessarily think that is the solution to the current risk as we look across the risk landscape. We engaged with firms. We carried out a survey which indicated that firms which are proactively thinking about redistributing their trade flow and how they will respond to this have quite optimistic outlooks. Not to use too blunt a phrase but we should really be supporting firms to self-solve some of this. The reality is we do not necessarily see a change that is temporary in terms of the trading frictions they will face. They need to adapt to this and we need to support them in adapting to it rather than saying there could be a reduction in some cost base for them for a period of 12 months. That would not necessarily solve their problem.
No comments