Ms Carol Lynch:

There are two points. First of all in regard to the work that has been done to attract inward investment into Northern Ireland, I was talking to my colleagues in BDO Belfast on this yesterday. It carried out a number of reports. In particular, there was quite a large report on prosperity in Northern Ireland, which was presented in the House of Commons and to the Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, pointing out the opportunities in Northern Ireland which are there to be availed of as the Windsor Framework has now set in. There is a significant amount of new US investment that has potential to come into Northern Ireland once the regulatory issues are settled.

There is a great deal of work there as regards publicising that. It is a matter of trying to get that message out a little more internally in Ireland and looking at the structure and employment opportunities available in Northern Ireland to support that inward investment. There is definitely some work being done there that is achieving good traction.

As regards the trade statistics, there has been a solid and really good result. Looking at trade statistics between the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain, there was certainly a belief that with Brexit initially there would be a significant reduction in imports and then, certainly from January or February of this year, with the changes in the UK as regards Irish exports, that we would have a significant reduction in exports to the UK. It is quite commendable to Irish exporters that this has not actually happened, that the work that has been done by Bord Bia, Enterprise Ireland, etc., in training and educating our exporters has really stood to them and that those challenges have been overcome. Notwithstanding the challenges I am raising as to what is coming down the line, we still have an issue with chemical exports, but I do not think that has anything to do with Brexit. As regards our food and agriculture side of things, those numbers have stayed constant. I do not have the actual details to hand, but that is at a high level.