Mr. Michael Murphy:

I thank Senators Leyden and Richmond for their interventions. I commend Senator Richmond on the excellent work he is doing as chair of the Oireachtas Brexit committee. I also commend this committee on its work, which has been part of a co-ordinated approach taken particularly in terms of the first phase, which involved creating an awareness throughout the EU 27 of the unique challenges Ireland faces. That co-ordinated approach was taken by the Heads of State, this committee, our members of the European Parliament, MEPs, our national Government, and by us as members of the Committee of the Regions at sub-national level. It is important to highlight the incredible work being done by our permanent representation in Brussels in keeping us all very well briefed. I assure this committee that, as members of the Committee of the Regions, we are very active within our political groups, commissions and the wider committee. We have adopted a number of resolutions and, thanks to the members of the Irish delegation, the Irish concerns around protecting the Good Friday Agreement in terms of the challenges we face from a trade perspective, given the level of trade intensity many of our regions have with the UK, are at the front and centre of those resolutions.

As the committee will know, I was here for the Conference of Presidents in May of this year. As a delegation, we have engaged directly with Michel Barnier. We have been very active in creating such awareness. We have moved beyond that now and the focus is on finding solutions, notwithstanding the fluid nature of where we are at currently in terms of developments in the past 24 hours. As members of the Committee of the Regions, we have brought our knowledge back to our local authorities. We have introduced debate within our county councils around Brexit and not only by way of notice of motions around the normal day to day challenges we face at local level in terms of investment, roads and water services. We have brought the debate on Brexit into the chambers of our local authorities and they have reacted. I am aware Tipperary County Council is very active in having Brexit seminars and working closely with the local enterprise offices. I highlighted on the last occasion I was here the key role our local enterprise offices have to play and the supports national Government has provided them with. It is extremely important that as many businesses and small and medium enterprises, SMEs, as possible are aware of and use those supports to improve their competitiveness, finance, attendance at trade shows and online presence because that is as much as we can do at present. I had a Brexit dialogue in Clonmel in the past two months. It was organised in collaboration with the local chamber of commerce and attended by 300 representatives from business and the agri sector. We are very active in bringing that debate at European level back into the chambers of our local authorities. At the Committee of the Regions level, we prepared a territorial impact assessment, which very much mirrored the Copenhagen Economics report commissioned by our Government. Irish regions will be the those most impacted by Brexit as well as our agrifood machinery, wholesale, medical device and pharma sectors. A great deal of good work is being done. Currently, it is about creating that awareness and highlighting the important role our local enterprise offices have to play.

A good question was asked about broadband. There has been much talk of it and everybody in this room is well aware of high-speed sustainable broadband being a driver of economic growth in rural and peripheral regions and an enabler of distance working, with people being able to work at home rather than commuting to our large urban centres. A significant portion of ERDF moneys have been promised for the national broadband plan. I thought the figure was €75 million but my colleague has advised me it could be more than that. There has been much delay in the implementation of the national broadband plan. As I highlighted in an opinion on competition policy, we need greater flexibility in state aid rules when it comes to the roll-out of broadband. When the national broadband plan was launched in 2012 it was very difficult to define an intervention map on the one hand and at the same time technological advances are very fluid. We need greater flexibility in the application of State aid rules and, hopefully, that is a lesson that has been learned.