Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The uptake rate is less than 10%. Unfortunately, the Minister did not answer my question, which concerned the types of companies that are availing of the loans. In the case of the market discovery fund, more should be done to diversify our export markets and reduce our over-reliance on American foreign direct investment, FDI, as welcome as that is. According to Enterprise Ireland's export performance in global markets reports, just 1% of our exports went to the entire continent of South America in 2017. In addition, just 9% of exports went to the continent of Africa, the Middle East and India combined. We need to diversify our export destinations to avoid a repeat of an over-reliance on any single market. Furthermore, steps must be taken to diversify the locations from which we secure foreign direct investment. Recent figures show that of the 1,444 client companies, more than 53% are from the United States, with just seven of the 1,444 coming from the entire continent of Africa. Will the Minister outline what steps she has taken to diversify our export markets and the countries of origin of IDA Ireland client companies?

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