Mr. Ian Talbot:

With respect to free trade agreements - I know it is not definitively free trade - I suppose we are nervous about the fact that free trade becomes very contentious when things go to Parliament. From our perspective, we can see that the benefits of free trade to Ireland have been enormous. We know there is a big challenge where the strength of FDI in Ireland versus the indigenous sector is a fact and we need to build up indigenous businesses. Yet, there have been challenges to things like the CETA free trade agreement. There is a nervousness about Mercosur. I just read this morning on Mercosur that the EU Commission is now looking at a specific fund for the farming industry. This is a report; it is not fact yet. It is something to help to get the farming community happy with the Mercosur agreement, for example. There are things that, on the face of it, look like great opportunities for Ireland, both for FDIs here but more importantly to grow our indigenous businesses. We keep just not getting them over the line. They were the challenges we were referring to.

We do not see any reason this would not be done. We do not think it is complicated. There is huge benefit. There is a time aspect to it and it should not be contentious, so let us just move forward.