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

I thank the Minister for her reply. As she is aware, for historic reasons during the awful period of the Troubles, it was extremely difficult to attract inward investment to the Border region, to places like Monaghan, Donegal and Cavan. We had to depend on indigenous industry. By and large the industries in the counties of the Border region, including my own constituency, are small and medium-sized enterprises. The briefing note prepared for the Minister by the various agencies states that they are engaged with all companies. However, there may be companies with half a dozen to a dozen employees that have not sought the assistance of Enterprise Ireland or any other statutory agency in the past. It is very important that all industries and enterprises are spoken to, involved in negotiations and given details of what assistance can be made available to them. I emphasise that many of the companies in my particular area are heavily or completely dependent on exports to the sterling area. There should be a plan in place so that if there is currency instability, a mechanism would be activated to support those enterprises that experience immediate problems in their export markets.

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