John Halligan (Waterford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The local enterprise offices provide a range of support, including in the year to date 185 clients have availed of what they call the technical assistance to micro-enterprises. I acknowledge what the Deputy says but we have a booklet, which is on our website, entitled Building Stronger Businesses Getting Brexit Ready. The Department and its agencies work intensively with Irish companies to deal with the challenges and opportunities arising from Brexit. There are strategies to maintain and grow in the UK market. The take-up was not as big as we thought it would be in the many companies we have met dealing into the UK market. Let us give companies credit. Many Irish companies are confident and competent that they can deal with whatever Brexit throws at them and they do not necessarily need to take up any assistance from EI or otherwise. We would not be too sure what companies they would be. We can only go by the companies that come to us with all that we make available to them. One of the major initiatives we had was the €300 million Brexit loan scheme to enable companies fund a Brexit response strategy. I urge companies to look at the summary of Brexit supports available from the Department. It goes through loan schemes, tourism, hospitality and everything one can think of. There is an onus on companies to come to the Department if they want help and want to know the schemes that are available. We are working intensively with Irish companies to maintain business and to grow in the UK market.

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