Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We are all very concerned as are business people at Theresa May's confirmation that the UK intends to leave the Single Market and that we are facing a hard Brexit. The Minister is aware that the Department of Finance in the scenario which it produced recently predicted a fall in our economic output of 3.5% that would effectively reduce our exports to the UK by almost one third.

In a reply to a recent parliamentary question, the Minister informed me that, as of 19 January last, only half the Cabinet had engaged in bilateral meetings with their counterparts. That is seven out of 15, which is poor. Those figures may have improved since. We have been advocating an enterprise stabilisation fund. The Minister outlined how she has resourced IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland but we need a stabilisation fund that business and small and medium enterprises, SMEs can tap into, a fund that they can apply to with a set of criteria. Does the Minister have any plan to introduce such a measure at Cabinet and if not, why?

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