Mr. Michael Carey:

I have a few comments in response to some of the issues raised by Deputy Shanahan. I will make a note of what he said about patent protection and IP and investigate it further.

In terms of his comments on VC funding, access to funding generally is a real challenge. Having a competitive banking sector is very important for the indigenous Irish sector to provide a source of banking funding but also equity funding. EI already participates in a lot of investment funds and co-invests alongside a lot of equity investment funds. That should be encouraged and progressed but funding generally is one of the greatest challenges facing businesses that want to scale up. We need to find ways, not necessarily to provide the funding but to facilitate the funding and work with others in the public sector to ensure the environment is right for companies to allow them to raise the funding.

Deputy Shanahan describes the issue relating to scaling versus selling, in some occasions it might be the right thing for a business to sell and bring in new equity and international equip perhaps on occasion, but for lots of other companies it is not the right thing and business and business leaders who are forced to make that call for reasons that can be addressed is an unfortunate outcome. We should support those who really have the ambition to take it on to the next stage, who have the bandwidth and energy to keep going. Building generational businesses would really change the Irish economy.

I agree absolutely with the cost-base challenges Deputy Shanahan raises. I see it in my day job. It is a real challenge for exporters. EI's role in that could be to help support investment in areas of innovation, efficiency and further capital spend in businesses to make sure they are competitive. In the long run, if a business is not competitive it will not survive or grow. We must find ways to up the value of the outputs of Irish businesses and the skills that are being used. Innovation is crucial. There are great opportunities in areas around digitalisation and businesses that can move and get ahead of the game. EI has a huge role to play in that, but the world will continue to change and the competitive nature of the world is not going to get any easier. It is fantastic to see so many really successful Irish businesses making progress by doing it right. EI has a big role to play in that.