Lucinda Creighton (Dublin South East, Independent)
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167. To ask the Minister for Finance if he or his officials have met with any pharmaceutical companies already located in here in advance of budget 2014 to see if there are any measures which he could take to improve their exports and offset some of the losses experienced from drugs coming off patent; if he is concerned that the 3% drop in exports year on year, according to the latest statistics, is largely attributable to a fall-off in pharmaceutical exports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45942/13]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Irish merchandise exports were down by 5.5 per cent in the first half of 2012 on an annual basis, largely because of reduced output from the pharmaceutical and chemical sector, owing to the impact of patent expiry which is occurring globally, including in key export markets. Given the large weight of the sector in Irish output, this has weighed on GDP in 2012 and is likely to do the same in 2013 as well. Given the weight of the sector in Irish GDP, developments in the sector are something that my officials monitor closely to best understand the prospects for aggregate economic growth in the near term. In the course of this monitoring my officials met with relevant stakeholders including a pharmaceutical industry representative group. In the context of Budget 2014, my officials also met with a large variety of organisations, representative groups and individual companies, including pharmaceutical companies.