Eamon Scanlon (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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20. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the details of all planning and research work under way on the impact of Brexit on businesses and small and medium enterprises in Northern Ireland and the Border counties; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [49458/17]

Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael)
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Earlier this month I published a paper, entitled Building Stronger Business, which sets out all the wide ranging work both underway and planned by my Department, to deal with the enterprise issues of Brexit, including various pieces of wider research on Brexit issues currently being undertaken. The approach  is to minimise risks and maximise opportunities by ensuring the growth and resilience of Irish enterprise post-Brexit working across four pillars:

- Helping firms to compete: We are working across Government to create the best environment  for business to grow, export and create jobs. Key elements include:ensuring that firms have access to finance; ensuring that our tax regime and infrastructure spend promote national competitiveness; and that the Agencies are appropriately resourced to help business focus on competitiveness at firm level.

- Enabling firms to  innovate: As part of our strategy to become a Global Innovation Leader, we are targeting R&D funding through our Agencies. We want to support  innovation in new products and processes which firms will need if they are to compete, grow and invest in the pipeline of the next generation of innovators through a new postgraduate researcher programme.

- Supporting firms to trade: We are supporting firms to: start exporting; grow their exports in existing markets; and diversify into new markets and regions. We will continue to attract overseas investment while working with EU partners to expand the portfolio of Free Trade Agreements.

- Negotiating for the best possible outcome: We are working across government to ensure we get the best outcome possible for business from Brexit negotiations. DBEI is leading a range of Brexit research projects which will provide an extensive evidence base to inform and guide Ireland’s position within the EU-27.

Northern Ireland accounts for about  twelve percent of total exports from Ireland to the UK and accounts for about eight per cent of imports.  Given that the population of Northern Ireland makes up less than three per cent of the UK total, this shows the closeness of the economic ties between the two jurisdictions.

It is therefore very important that we understand the implications of Brexit on this trade and that we have a strong evidence-based analysis to inform policy decisions.  Accordingly, in partnership with InterTrade Ireland, the cross border body which my Department co-funds, we have initiated a major research project, with the analysis being undertaken by the Economic and Social Research Institute.

Phase 1 of this analysis used data on WTO baseline tariff rates, sectoral price elasticities and non-tariff barrier costs, to generate estimates on the range of possible impacts for the type of products currently being traded.  It considered a range of tariff and exchange rate scenarios. The results presented, show a very significant adverse impact on levels of cross border trade, especially in the Agri-food sector.  It is important to note that these are the worst case scenarios if no trade agreement is in place. Obviously, our stated Government intention is to ensure negotiations mitigate these impacts.  This report was published  in July last. 

The second  phase of the research, currently nearing completion, is examining the concentration of North-South trade, how the structure changed over time, the patterns of intermediate inputs and final products, the frequency with which new products are introduced, and how product composition compares to other markets.  The third phase, to commence shortly,  will look at issues relating to services trade between both jurisdictions as opposed to goods trade.