Pádraic McCormack
Question:12 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade if he has satisfied himself with the export performance of indigenous Irish industry; and the measures, if any, he proposes to introduce to increase performance.
Written Answers. - Indigenous Industry.
Brendan McGahon
Question:28 Mr. McGahon asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade if he has satisfied himself with the export performance of indigenous Irish industry; and the measures, if any, he proposes to introduce to increase performance.
Gay Mitchell
Question:29 Mr. G. Mitchell asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade if he has satisfied himself with the export performance of indigenous Irish industry; and the measures, if any, he proposed to introduce to increase performance.
Dinny McGinley
Question:31 Mr. McGinley asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade if he has satisfied himself with the export performance of indigenous Irish industry; and the measures, if any, he proposes to introduce to increase performance.
I propose to take Questions Nos. 12, 28, 29 and 31 together.
In recent years, the growth of exports by indigenous companies has been consistently ahead of overall export growth. Over the past three years, they have increased by almost 23 per cent to IR£3.7 billion in 1992, compared to overall export growth of 14 per cent in the same period.
Our indigenous companies are now major export players and their contribution to the Irish economy is extremely valuable: indigenous exports are more than twice as job intensive as other exports and indigenous companies purchase more of their inputs in Ireland.
This excellent performance has been facilitated by the expansion and intensification of An Bord Tráchtála's programmes and services under the Programme for Industrial Development, 1989-1993. With the assistance of Structural Funds, Government expenditure on measures to improve the marketing performance of indigenous industry has more than doubled. One specific grant scheme, which I have launched, is EUROPLACE, which aims to increase substantially the number of salespeople that Irish firms have, on the ground, in their main markets.
However, the continuing weak demand in these markets, and the tentative nature of the recovery in market conditions in the UK and US in the first half of this year, have led to a slowdown in the rate of indigenous export growth. To address this situation, I announced, on 31 August, a new export drive by ABT which involves action on two fronts — on the demand side through stimulating more sales leads and increasing promotional activity and on the supply side by providing additional direct grants to firms. These changes are aimed at encouraging indigenous industry to maintain its market effort, particularly in Continental European markets, and to step up its presence in the UK and US, where export sales are expected to pick up after the slow start earlier in the year.
While there has been a noticeable improvement in our ability to compete effectively in international markets, we must continue to close the gap that still exists between many Irish fairms and their foreign competitors in areas such as marketing skills, information and organisation. Deputies can be assured that the Government's commitment to providing significant resources to our indigenous exporting sector will be maintained under the Market Development Programme for 1994-1999 which will include a variety of measures aimed at further improving the marketing capability of Irish firms and translating that into increased market share, through group-based activity and providing grants to companies to enter new markets and consolidate existing markets.