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

To be honest, the biggest threat for our companies is uncertainty. We are not sure what is happening. That was very evident yesterday when I met the various Ministers in London. When there is the threat of uncertainty, businesses do not know whether they should invest and take on more staff. All of that feeds into people not investing in companies. Obviously, currency fluctuation is a huge issue for our agrifood, timber and beef sectors. That is a potentially huge threat. In terms of competitiveness, Enterprise Ireland is working to ensure that companies are competitive.

The positives for Ireland are the number of companies in the UK that are worried about the uncertainty and what will happen if there is a soft or hard Brexit. Will they opt for a trade deal such as the one Norway has or their own specialised trade deal? I do not believe they know themselves at this stage. All that uncertainty is feeding into the uncertainty with regard to the currencies, investors and our entrepreneurs because they do not know what decision to make.

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