Ireland has a hit list of countries to target for business as the UK's lure fades

IRISH OFFICIALS ARE drawing up a list of countries to target for new business as the country looks to cope with the fallout of the Brexit vote.

The UK is the single largest foreign market for Irish businesses, with more than €1.2 billion worth of goods traded between the two countries every week.

However state agencies will now pull together a list of markets where they see untapped potential amid fears that Britain’s vote to leave the EU could have serious knock-on effects for many domestic firms.

Enterprise Ireland and the IDA have both said that they have contingency plans in place to cope with Brexit. The agencies are looking to push trade in other markets so that Irish businesses won’t be as reliant on the UK in future.

Speaking to Fora at the launch of the Tech Ireland initiative yesterday, Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor said that officials are now drawing up a list of other countries to visit in the hopes of drumming up new business for Irish companies.

“We are working with the IDA and Enterprise Ireland. Enterprise Ireland would have a plan,” she said. “We are going to ramp up trade missions to parts of the world where we will be looking for business.

“The US, China, Europe – and especially we’re going to look at Germany and France in the next number of weeks. They (state agencies) are coming into me this week with a ramped-up list.”

Jobs Minister Mary Mitchell O'Connor (left) at the launch of Tech Life Ireland

“Stay calm”

Mitchell O’Connor also played down the possible impact of Brexit, pointing to figures released last week that showed a rise in exports among Enterprise Ireland client companies as a reason to be optimistic.

She added: “Diversification will be huge, but it is really important now that we stay calm.”

Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Sinnamon said that her agency is targeting “many other markets outside of the UK”.

“For example the Gulf, France, Germany, southern European markets, India and China, depending on the sector,” she told Fora.

“We will be talking to each company about their specific products, what they are doing and what markets might be (suitable).”

Enterprise Ireland CEO Julie Sinnamon

UK still vital

However, Sinnamon added that the UK will continue to be one of the country’s most important markets.

“The UK is our number-one export market. I don’t see us walking away from the UK. I think what you have to do if you’re going into the UK is to have really innovative products and services that are in demand,” she said.

Despite the worries for Irish exporters, it is hoped that Brexit could lead to more foreign companies investing in the Republic due to its EU status.

The IDA wrote to over 1,000 companies in the wake of the UK vote highlighting the benefits of doing business in Ireland and the agency’s CEO Martin Shanahan said there could be a shift in investment across the Irish Sea.

“From an Irish perspective this is not necessarily what we would have wanted, (but) from an FDI perspective, yes there is probably some potential,” he said.

“The size of that potential is as yet unknown, it will largely depend on what access the UK will have to the EU in the future and that won’t be known for some time.

“Having said that, in the interim the certainty that Ireland can provide I think will play well with investors.

“For investment that hasn’t yet landed into Europe, obviously I think Ireland has become a lot more attractive in the sense of that we can definitively say we have access to the European market.”