Mr. Neil McDonnell:

We are very conscious that climate change is an issue. Carbon costs small businesses money, but the problem is that carbon generates a lot of money for the State. Decarbonising will need to push revenue elsewhere and everyone needs to think how that will happen.

GDPR is cost additive. It is too early to say what the ultimate implications will be for businesses. We do not want to see it become the next slip, trip and fall. There is real concern that could be the case. Nobody has absolute rights. Bunreacht na hÉireann allowed us to execute people up to the 1970s. It recognised a balance of rights between public and private. It cannot become an absolute right for privacy. One of the big areas in which we are seeing privacy having a negative impact is on insurance. There is push-back on a claims database because people do not want to share who all these really unfortunate people having a large number of accidents are.

On credit, everyone is saying we are too dependent on the pillar banks. There are alternative networks that are potentially functional in Ireland, most especially the post office network and the credit union network. We really need to think how we can use those sensibly.

The significant issue underlying the national broadband plan is the commercialisation of the last mile, especially in rural areas. Figures in excess of €2,000 per household have been mentioned. I am not our policy guru on this, but I am rehearsing what he has been saying in the media lately. By way of analogy to our gas and electricity networks, we have not sold those networks. We have kept the skeleton and sold access to the network commercially. That is why we think it is a viable proposition to purchase back the network. It could be done without taking it on the balance sheet because there would be a ready-made customer base to do it immediately. Despite some of the stuff in today's media that the way ahead is through 4G and 5G, we do not see that as being adequate for long-term cloud-based solutions where everything happens in the cloud.

While we may be seeing a solution to the withdrawal part of Brexit, one of the commentators last week referred to Brexit WTF - withdrawal, transition and future arrangement. In the long term, the issue will be about the regulatory and non-tariff framework. That will especially impact on food exporters. However, Revenue could make a contribution. There is no absolute necessity to collect VAT and customs duties at point of import when the UK becomes a third country. Revenue could treat the UK in that way for tax purposes. We understand the impact on cashflow could be relaxed if Revenue so determined.

We were asked for our top three. A strategy is the one thing that unites all of us. When ISME, IBEC and the SFA agree we need a strategy, we need a strategy. The OECD will tell the State the same thing next year. A really simple point at which to start is the German federal Government's top ten for the Mittelstand. Second is competitiveness. It is more important for a peripheral nation to be competitive than it is for those at the core. We are just about as peripheral as it is possible to get now. The third thing would be sustainability in everything - our public sector finances, value for money for same, our debt level, our environment and bringing in the circular economy. Those would be our top three.