Mary White (Fianna Fail)

Over the past year the Irish Farmers' Association and the Irish Exporters Association have called for a State supported short-term export credit insurance scheme. I raised this matter on the Order of Business last week and, subsequently, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment informed the IFA and the IEA that it would not provide this insurance. I call on the Minister to publish the KPMG report, which states not enough companies require this insurance and it does not affect many people. The multinationals are responsible for 90% of our exports while the remaining 10% are generated by indigenous companies, of which two thirds operate in the food and drinks industry. I demand that the report be published. The bureaucrats in the Department have no understanding of the pressures on indigenous food and drink companies, the rapid deterioration of sterling by 30% over the past two years, the lack of competitiveness, costs and so on. Jobs have been lost in the food industry and sales have dropped to €8 billion. We have a crisis in our indigenous industry and the bureaucrats in the Department employed KPMG to produce a report when they knew that 90% of companies, the multinationals, had their own insurance. I am calling for insurance to save our food and drinks companies.