Mr. Aidan Gough:

That is the issue. Our latest survey indicates that 98% of businesses are still not planning, which means they are not responding to these questions at the moment. For this reason, we are actively trying to encourage them to start asking questions of themselves. With Brexit, the impact gets very granular and depends very much on the type of business involved. Only the businesses can answer the questions and we are asking them to start the planning process. We also have services in place to help them while they ask these questions. If they start asking questions and find they do not have the answers they need in certain areas, we will supply a voucher up to a value of up to €1,000 to help them obtain the expert advice they need. This will enable them to start to prepare for whatever new relationship emerges. InterTradeIreland does not comment in any way on what that relationship may be because no one knows the answer.

Again, we are not making a projection or prediction, but one of the scenarios for which the largest amount of information is available is if Britain and the European Union were to revert to a WTO type trading regime, which is sometimes known as the hard Brexit or cliff edge scenario. We know what the tariffs would be in this worst case scenario and we are completing some research, as yet unpublished, that examines the impact on cross-Border trade of a WTO tariff regime. It identifies the sectors that are most susceptible and at risk, right down to a granular product level. This is a useful starting point for a business because it can work with that.