Vol. 463 No. 8
18 Kathleen Lynch asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade the representations, if any, that have been made by his Department to the EU Commission and to relevant EU member states regarding the difficulties being experienced by Irish exporters seeking to penetrate EU markets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7564/96]
The IBEC survey on barriers to trade, which was carried out last year at my request to determine if the Single Market was working for Irish companies, found that one-third of respondent exporters had experienced difficulties in gaining market access to other EU markets. IBEC was subsequently requested to further analyse the survey results to ascertain the nature of the problems concerned, to enable my Department to pursue these problems with the EU Commission and other member states concerned.
In late November 1995 IBEC confirmed that almost all cases of difficulties reported by Irish exporters had been successfully resolved. Efforts were still being made to settle the small number of unresolved cases and, if these proved unsuccessful, the assistance of my Department would be sought. Because of the progress made through other channels, the need for representations to the EU Commission and other member states regarding difficulties experienced by Irish exporters in EU markets has not arisen to date.
