Brendan Smith (Cavan-Monaghan, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this report. The Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade has responded positively to the Chairman's introduction of the report and to the detailed work of the committee members and the stakeholders and interest groups that participated in its preparation. Fianna Fáil agrees that the promotion of trade by our diplomatic network in the Department is essential and links well with our foreign affairs priorities.

The patent cliff in the pharmaceutical sector is of major concern and resulted in the value of experts in 2013 falling by 5% to almost €86.9 billion. Our banking sector is also of concern because the outstanding issues to be addressed, as Mario Draghi, President of the European Central Bank, stated, are a drag on exports, particularly for small and medium sized enterprises, SMEs. The Government must ensure that any threats to our export-driven economy are identified now and policies put in place to ensure that important exporting sectors remain on a sustainable growth path. Renewed efforts must be made to identify and support home-grown exporting companies. I am glad that over the past decade SMEs have had better access to higher education institutions, research centres and innovation. Many of the institutes of technology play a leading role in supporting existing companies to maintain and grow employment.

We need to continue to identify products we can produce at a competitive advantage and for which there will be a high international demand, in order to ensure the future prosperity of our people. Earlier this morning, I met a visiting vice minister and delegation of the international department of the central committee of the Communist Party of China. They represent the world's second largest economy. They outlined the development of relations between our countries, particularly with the establishment of the Irish embassy in 1979 and of the Embassy of the People's Republic of China here in 1980. They spoke about the development of links between our two peoples and business development, particularly exports from Ireland. They are anxious that we continue to build and strengthen those developments, and outlined the opportunities for us to grow trade between our two countries.

One element missing from conversations about exports is the need for currency stability. In the last quarter of 2008 sterling depreciated by over 20%, which hit our exporters very hard because they had set their prices when the two currencies were at different exchange rates. International stability in currency is critically important to us.

According to an article by Geoff Percival in The Irish Examiner, of 15 February 2014:

CSO data published yesterday showed that the value of exports in 2013 fell 5% to nearly €86.9bn. Import value grew 1% to €49.6bn.

The US, Britain, Belgium, and Germany qualified as our main trading partners during the year, with an 8% increase in the export of food and live animals noted. [The Minister referred to the successful continuous growth of food and drink exports.]

However, the so-called patent cliff was again noted, with the export of medical and pharma products decreasing by nearly €3bn, or 12%.

Alan McQuaid, chief economist with Merrion Stockbrokers, said: “The pharmaceutical sector accounts for approximately a quarter of total Irish exports and half of merchandise exports. According to a research paper published by the Department of Finance last year, Ireland will continue to feel the negative impact of the patent cliff for some time to come, though the magnitude is unlikely to be as great as was felt in 2012. Furthermore, the headline impact should be offset to some extent by reduced imports through royalty payments.”

Mr McQuaid said exports will remain the main driver of Irish economic activity and that a pick-up in global demand this year should result in a recovery . . .

This is needed and it is very important for the country. The need for exports to double the European Union average shows how dependent we are on the good health of the international economy. The general pick-up in global demand will assist us and give us the opportunity to recover what has been lost through those circumstances.

See this speech in context