Ms Kerry Curran:

I will address Senator Reilly's points first and then my colleague will cover Senator Gavan's point. Senator Reilly is absolutely right: many SMEs are not aware of their supply chains and where they sit within them. This is a key part of our messaging. When we have gone out all around the country, in the North and South of Ireland, we have told businesses they really need to look at where they sit within their supply chains, look up them, look down them and see how Brexit in all its permutations may impact upon their business. We are trying our very best to get this message out. It relates a little to Senator Davitt's point on SMEs. Through our very latest supply chain reports, research which will come out, I hope, next week, we are seeing just how important SMEs are to all-island trade. We all know they are the backbone of our economy and that they contribute approximately 50% to gross value added, GVA, in Ireland, but when we looked at businesses that are trading across the Border, we saw that the majority are SMEs and are trading within supply chains in component parts. It is important they have both the space and the opportunity to grow on both sides of the Border if we want to see cross-Border trade continue to develop at the pace it has done so. Over the past 18 years we have seen cross-Border trade increase on average by 4% per annum. We want to see that continue to grow and really take up its full potential.