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

I have had a wide and extensive series of meetings since the result of the UK referendum in June. I am a member of the Cabinet Sub-committee on Brexit, which has already met on a number of occasions. As regards my Department and its agencies, I have established a co-ordination group consisting of the chief executive officers of both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland, and relevant enterprise, Single Market and trade officials from my Department. I am continuing to chair this group.

I have met with a wide range of representative organisations, including the Irish Business and Employers Confederation, IBEC; the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU; the Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association, ISME; the Small Firms Association, SFA; the Irish Exporters Association, the American Chamber of Commerce Ireland, the Dublin Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise Ireland, the Regional Action Plan Implementation Groups, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland client companies as well as the Irish Farmers Association.

In September, I travelled to Brussels and met with Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska, Commissioner for the Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs, and with Commissioner Cecelia Malmström, Commissioner for Trade, and also with Vicky Ford MEP, chair of the Internal Market Committee of the European Parliament.

Yesterday, I was in London and met with Secretary of State for International Trade, Liam Fox, and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, Greg Clark. In addition, I met the UK Trade Minister, Lord Price, earlier this week during his visit to Dublin. I have also met with my Northern Ireland counterpart, Minister Simon Hamilton, and I look forward to ongoing engagement with him, including through the North-South Ministerial Council.

In all of these meetings and fora, I have been very conscious of the need to respond in the most appropriate manner to the challenges presented by the movements in the sterling exchange rate.

See this speech in context