Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the reply. The Minister of State said it is a flavour of the figures, but it gives us a stark idea of the challenges ahead, even though most of those challenges are masked by the impact of the pandemic.

My supplementary question is on the development of new markets, to which the Minister of State alluded. In the previous questions we talked about the potential new markets through EU trade deals with third-party countries, but in the context of supply chain and imports, I particularly and crucially want to refer to the potential for developing existing markets within the Union and developing our established partnerships with countries such as France and Germany. We must also look at the opportunities provided by countries in central and eastern Europe, the Nordic region and southern Europe for imports and exports. What efforts are the Department, agencies and partners going to make to maximise every potential presented to us by the Single Market?

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