Mr. David Hegarty:

The challenges are probably related to things like an understanding of the issues that arise if a company is trying to break into export markets. There are a range of programmes run by Enterprise Ireland that will assist companies in entering export markets. One point which struck us in carrying out the analysis for the White Paper is that if we compare Ireland with Denmark, it is clear that a much higher proportion of SMEs in Denmark export goods than their counterparts in Ireland, which is a surprising finding in many ways. Just 6% of Irish SMEs are engaged in exporting, although that is counting all businesses so it may not be entirely accurate.