Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. I note what he said about the 225,000 businesses that have been corresponded with, which is welcome, but the Declaron research also found that 54% of businesses that trade with the UK do not understand the new custom clearance procedures that are guaranteed to come into effect on 1 January 2021, which is worrying. Does the Minister of State agree with Carol Lynch, one of those who participated in that research, that many businesses seem to be sleepwalking into the trade agreement trap? Is he confident that businesses know that, even if the trade agreement is reached, there will still be a requirement for import and export declarations? Is there anything that can be done about this?

Last month, a new online Enterprise Ireland Brexit readiness checker was launched to help businesses, which is welcome. What was the response to that? If the Minister of State does not have the answer this evening, perhaps he will furnish me with it because I would like to know how many businesses have logged on.

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