Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate and accept the frustration that the Deputy has expressed. It is not a position that I am overly enamoured with either but the Business Committee set out to try to put in place the legislative agenda between now and the recess. This Bill was identified as priority legislation. Although I could be wrong, it is my understanding that it was so identified in the absence of a finance committee. It was in that context that it was scheduled by the Business Committee and I reiterate it is unfortunate.

I have just checked with the officials and if it is an Irish company that is owned, operated, registered and everything else in this jurisdiction and trades in the North, it will be eligible. It cannot be owned, operated, registered and so on north of the Border because that is a different jurisdiction. In the same way as we are going to have Irish SMEs trading with the United Kingdom into the future, trading with the UK will not debar them from accessing the funding. However they have to be Irish companies because this is a European Union mechanism and the United Kingdom will no longer be a European Union country.

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