Trade Promotion
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-26
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Helen McEntee (FG), Meath East

I too will take this opportunity on the floor to welcome the agreement of the EU-Australia trade deal this week. This is something that will open up Irish markets to a substantial economy and one where we are very much aligned. We see Australia as trusted trading partners. There is further exploration happening and we are looking at other trade deals across the globe. Of course, we hope to ratify CETA as well this year in its tenth year. The Minister of State, Deputy Byrne, is bringing forward that legislation and we will visit Canada in the next few weeks to highlight just how much progress has been made and how valuable it is. It has been worth about €10 billion to our economy over the ten years.
There is more we can do outside of trade deals and I am very conscious of the fluctuation and changes that have happened in the tariff environment, particularly with the US. That is why during our Presidency, we will particular focus on what we can do within the European Union. The Deputy will know three of our priorities are competitiveness, security and our values from a competitiveness perspective. This will be about completing the Single Market. There are barriers within the Single Market that are preventing us from doing better and more business. It will be about making sure we focus on the capital markets union and banking union so we open up more finance. I will come back to the Deputy on the rest.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-26/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:47+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-26