Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)

On new markets, we know the United States is a country on which we are disproportionately dependent for high-quality foreign direct investment, and not only with regard to corporation tax receipts but for a disproportionate level of income tax receipts and high value-added jobs. We are excessively reliant on the United States but, peculiarly for a state that has done so well from globalisation, and when we know we need to look to alternative markets to try to develop our indigenous enterprise space, which is notoriously under productive and unproductive compared to some countries, do the witnesses not think it is crazy that there seems to be a dispute in government at present over the signing of the Mercosur trade deal? In this context, when we speak about Mercosur, we have not had a proper debate on it because it has been closed down. There is huge value in Mercosur for other aspects of Irish industry. Has the Central Bank done an analysis of the value that could be added to the economy if we signed Mercosur, and what we could expect to see in benefits over a four- to five-year period?