Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Additional funding was provided to both Enterprise Ireland and the IDA to get more boots on the ground and to diversify our markets. There have been extensive trade missions to China and Japan. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Deputy Creed, is in China at the minute, and I myself have been there, as well as to Singapore. The Minister of State at the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Breen, has been to a number of different countries in South America. The EU is carrying out negotiations at the moment; a trade deal is currently being negotiated with New Zealand, and I plan to travel there in June. I have also been to Australia. A huge amount of work is being done in terms of diversifying markets. We have also increased our share of the European market. Funding was provided so that Enterprise Ireland could put additional people out there to look for new markets. There is a lot of work going on in that space in terms of broadening our market base.

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