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

The Minister mentioned the scheme announced by Enterprise Ireland this morning and the earlier budget announcement by the Minister for Finance. By any yardstick, the state of preparedness of business for the onset of a hard Brexit is alarming. AIB recently published a sentiment index for quarter 3 of this year which shows that only one in four Irish SMEs is properly prepared for a hard Brexit.

According to InterTradeIreland, 19 of the 20 SMEs it surveyed are also not prepared for it. Similarly, PricewaterhouseCoopers, PwC, and Deloitte, two major consultancy, auditing and accountancy firms, believe this is the case.

In regard to the working group on the revision of state aid rules to which the Tánaiste referred, will it examine specific issues such as the €200,000 limit, which is posing a huge barrier? During a previous Question Time the Tánaiste referred to a proposal to introduce a rescue and restructure scheme. What are the criteria for that scheme and what will be available to business via that scheme?

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