Mr. Paul Sweetman:

I thank Deputy McCarthy. The EU-US trade relationship is viewed on both sides of the Atlantic as an incredibly important relationship. As I said in the opening statement, the relationship is worth $1 billion in trade every six hours. It is phenomenally important to companies in Europe and in the US. Both markets provide huge opportunities to organisations. Post Covid we have seen a number of investments, particularly in Ireland, from US companies and vice versa from European and Irish companies into the US. It is growing from strength to strength but there are a number of things we need to focus on, particularly competitiveness at national and EU level, to make it thrive.

With regard to broader markets, when we focus on the EU there is a challenge of competitiveness and it is something that we really need to double down on. Ireland can take a lead role in pushing for the competitiveness of the EU when we look at the competitive advantages that other markets may have in attracting investment.