Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)

Deputy Burke is so right. We have to constantly push back against that idea of it being a one-way street because that is not what the economic relationship is, as the Deputy rightly says. There are over 200,000 Americans who got out of bed this morning, probably many of whom voted for President Trump, and went to work in Irish-owned companies in every state across the United States of America. It is a significant two-way flow. One of things we are doing to try to make that even more real now is by providing a breakdown state by state to see what it means in the state of Georgia, Illinois or California. That is an important way to be able to engage at that state level as well. We have had a number of governors here recently and we have been utilising that opportunity to talk about the state-by-state benefit of the two-way relationship.

The Deputy's second point is also really timely. We need to position ourselves, and we do, but we need to continue to take every opportunity. I always say US companies do not locate here for the weather. They locate here for a number of reasons, one of which is access to the massive market that is the European Union. Ireland is proudly a member of the European Union. We are proudly at the heart of it and we must remain there but we can also be somewhat of a bridge as a country within the European Union that understands, at least, the American perspective. Even if we do not always agree with it, at least we have that understanding of it.

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