9th November 2017
“Building Stronger Business: Responding to Brexit by competing, innovating and trading”
An Tánaiste today published a Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation Paper, “Building Stronger Business: Responding to Brexit by competing, innovating and trading”. The Paper sets out work underway, and planned, by the Department and its Agencies in response to Brexit.
An Tánaiste and Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Frances Fitzgerald TD said “This Paper is focused on the current needs of companies because many firms are already dealing with the consequences of the Brexit referendum result. The Government is providing supports to help make companies more resilient in the face of Brexit and other global challenges. We want to encourage more companies to engage with these various supports and to do what they can now to start planning for Brexit.”
“Our approach is to minimise risks and maximise opportunities by supporting the growth and resilience of Irish enterprises in the context of Brexit. We are focussing on: deepening national and firm level competitiveness; fostering product, service and process innovation within companies; and working with businesses to diversify their trade with the world. We know some businesses are planning for Brexit but many are not and I would urge all companies to engage with the supports that are available”, the Tánaiste added.
Commenting on the launch of the Paper, Minister of State for Trade, Employment, Business, EU Digital Single Market and Data Protection, Pat Breen TD noted that “Businesses are already coping with the consequences of the Brexit referendum, particularly currency fluctuations. As noted in our Paper, Building Stronger Business, strengthening the resilience of Irish firms requires a greater focus on enhancing our trade performance. Working with the enterprise agencies, we are supporting firms to engage in trade, grow their exports and diversify into new markets.”
Building Stronger Business also sets out the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation’s approach to managing Brexit impacts on the national research and innovation system. Minister for Training, Skills, Innovation, Research and Development, John Halligan TD, noted that “While from a research perspective there are risks associated with the UK’s departure from the EU, there are also opportunities for Ireland to build further bilateral collaboration with the UK and to enhance our links with other EU countries. By implementing the actions set out in Building Stronger Business, we will attract high skilled researchers and strengthen Ireland’s research capacity.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors
Building Stronger Business: Responding to Brexit by competing, innovating and trading
*Photos to follow from Fennells photography
“Building Stronger Business:Responding to Brexit by competing, innovating and trading” sets out work underway, and planned, by the Department of Business, Enterprise & Innovation and its Agencies in response to Brexit.
The paper summarises the impacts of Brexit across key policy areas within the Department and outlines the policy and operational measures underway, and planned, by the Department and its Agencies to respond to Brexit, including supports available to companies to help them prepare for Brexit. It also describes the research programme designed to inform that response.
The approach set out in Building Stronger Business 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.
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