Mr. Erik O'Donovan:

There are 11 Departments and 11 agencies with some sort of impact on digital. The good thing is that we have had a new national digital strategy since February and that does provide for co-ordination, which is important for IBEC and Technology Ireland. It is an issue not just in Ireland but globally. The OECD produces reports on this and also talks about the fact that because digital is so cross-cutting because it is not just the sector but our economy and society, there are a range of different actors and departments and we need to co-ordinate them. A senior officials group has been established to co-ordinate this and there is a new group called the enterprise digital advisory forum that brings stakeholders together to talk about some of these issues.

Coming back to the Senator's point about where the impact will be, a certain amount of this is within our control. If we have one message in our intervention, it would be that there is a certain amount we can control. We are competing with other jurisdictions in Europe and globally. I think our colleagues in IDA Ireland are pointing to that. It involves capacities and coherence. Ensuring those two puts us in a better place to compete globally.