Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

There is no point in denying that they will face difficulties. No matter who sits in this office or from which side of the House one looks at it, if there is a significant change in the trading relationship between Britain and Ireland, companies that depend on the UK market for exports will face difficulties. We need to help them to prepare, which involves diversifying markets, increasing domestic markets and elsewhere. We have seen some real success in the agrifood sector, for example, even though exports continue to rise to the UK, the percentage of exports is falling. It has gone from about 45% to 35% in a very short period. That is a good example of how Government is working with industry, particularly agrifood, in successfully diversifying markets. When we have a better of idea of what Brexit will really mean and what it will look like in terms of the next trading relationship, we will be able to provide loans and perhaps even state aid to companies to allow them to change what they do in order that they can appeal to new markets.

The Government accepts the Copenhagen Economics report. I will offer one caveat, in that the ESRI produced a similar analysis some months ago that makes slightly different assumptions but broadly speaking, both analyses project similar outcomes. I do not want to say that one is better than the other, but they use different assumptions, and taking them together I would give them equal weight. There has been some sensationalist reporting of the Copenhagen Economics report, which would lead one to think the report projects that Ireland will go into a recession, that there will be a contraction of the economy, a rise in unemployment and that wages will be cut.

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