Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

When I was in the UK yesterday, I met a number of people who are negotiating the Brexit deal for the UK. I wish to tell the Deputy that they do not know what they are doing and they do not know when they will be invoking Article 50. That is the first thing. It would be very irresponsible of me to give the Deputy chapter and verse about some fund today when it might be out of date tomorrow. However, I assure him that my Department is scoping out various possible responses to the short-term currency challenge and I expect to be in a position to announce more detail to help companies based on their actual needs. However, any new proposals will be based on evidence.

I recently met representatives of the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises association, the Small Firms Association, the Irish Exporters Association and the Irish Business and Employers Confederation to scope out the issues they believe their companies are facing. They have agreed to help the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation to get a clear picture of the various things the companies are asking for. Some companies are asking for low-cost loans and others are looking for export guarantees. We will have to scope out exactly what they want and make sure we provide a proper, tailor-made fund that will respond to the needs of exporters.

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