Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 6 December 2016

Committee on Budgetary Oversight

EU Directorate-General Economic and Financial Affairs: Discussion

5:00 pm

Mr. Carlos Martínez Mongay:

We are aware the UK market is important for Irish exporters, especially for its agrifood sector. We have taken into account the possible impacts of a weaker pound in our forecasts concerning Ireland. However, there is also the strength of domestic demand in Ireland together with the fact that it depends on the UK but now its markets in the euro area as a whole and in the rest of world are more important than the UK market. Therefore, if we have, as we set out in our forecasts, an expanding global economy in terms of global trade, Ireland will benefit. There will be some sectoral impacts, but as a whole, we see a recovery in Irish exports compared with 2016.