Ms Margaret Hearty:

I will give an InterTradeIreland perspective, after which I will invite colleagues to add comments. On Brexit support, it was mentioned earlier that uncertainty is one of the main factors that negatively impacts business. There was much noise around in terms of Brexit and Covid. Businesses need good information and tailored advice. Under our Brexit voucher scheme, a company can avail of tailored specialist advice which was matched to the company by InterTradeIreland. The scheme gives unique advice bespoke to the individual business and situation and demand for it continues. It has been evaluated and proven to be very effective. It also allowed us to then signpost to the loan schemes and the various other schemes the Government had in place. That, too, was very effective. However, businesses needed somebody to talk to who understood their specific needs.

In terms of Covid, we were focused on cross-Border traders, so when Covid struck and many channels to market closed down we introduced another voucher scheme. This was focused on getting help in businesses to access new channels to markets online. What we all realised was that there was a low level of awareness in companies. They had websites and an online presence but did not actually have the mechanisms in place to trade. Covid has certainly accelerated that experience.

The other agencies focus on lean energy. In terms of feeding into the negotiations, both our policy team and Brexit advisory team feed into both Departments and Brexit teams on an ongoing basis.

I invite my colleagues to add to that, whether Ms Maguire from the Brexit advisory service or Ms Curran from a policy perspective.