Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 10 May 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs

Development and Co-operation in Border Counties: Discussion (Resumed)

2:10 pm

Mr. Aidan Gough:

We have already identified those and we are going out to businesses. The first thing is the planning part. A good basis from which to start planning is the worst case scenario. There is a different scale of an issue in the agrifood sector but the vast majority of businesses we work with are primarily in the manufacturing sector. As I said, tariffs for 85% of them were below 10%. One could build value into one's production chain to mitigate a tariff, which will, in essence, be transferred into a price increase in one's goods, through programmes like our FUSION innovation programme. We see innovation as a key response for business, but it is really about focusing them on making adjustments to their business models now by looking at lean techniques and innovation to mitigate the worst impacts of Brexit.