Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. He is absolutely right regarding diversification. If one goes back 100 years, 50 years or even 40 years, Ireland was almost entirely dependent on Britain for trade and foreign currency. It is never a good thing for a country to be too dependent on another country, particularly a large neighbour if it has one. For several decades, our industrial and enterprise policies have been about diversification and making sure all our eggs have not been in the one basket. That has stood to us. The fact that Brexit has not had as negative an impact on the economy as it might have had is down to the fact that we have so much trade with the US and the eurozone. We want to increase our trade with areas beyond the eurozone, such as the Middle East, Japan and south-east Asia.

Enterprise Ireland is expanding and IDA Ireland is expanding our offices around the world, appointing new enterprise people to embassies around the world and opening new embassies, as the Deputy will be aware. We have seen a real improvement in the number of options for exporters and importers. The number of direct routes now available to continental Europe is extraordinary and they are very much being used.

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