Government considers budget help for exporters to UK

The Government is considering budget measures to help Irish businesses trading in the UK with contingency funding to cope with post-Brexit currency fluctuations.

On a visit to Washington, Minister of State for Financial Services Eoghan Murphy acknowledged that some Irish exporting companies will have currency hedging in place to deal with fluctuations in the sterling-euro exchange rate but noted that others may not and could require assistance.

"There may be a need for the Government to step in and put in a contingency funding arrangement to help traders through difficult and uncertain times," he told The Irish Times.

A declining sterling makes exports to the UK more expensive for Irish firms. The volatility in the currency following the vote to leave the European Union could be seen early on Friday when sterling breached 90p against the euro.

Mr Murphy said it was "almost certain" that the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland could be used in the budget to help "Brexit-proof" the economy and help businesses.

Eurostat concerns

He added that there were concerns, however, that Eurostat, the EU’s statistics agency, might change its calculations around public-private partnerships on infrastructural projects involving the State-backed bank that might push more debt onto the State’s balance sheet.

Mr Murphy said that a “really worrying” development would be if Eurostat changed how it classifies debt in public-private partnerships, making it retrospective, so projects deemed off-balance sheet now would in future be considered to be on the State’s balance sheet and that this might affect flexibilty for spending increases and tax cuts in the budget.

The Fine Gael junior minister visited New York to meet US financial companies that have operations in Ireland, including some from the insurance sector. He took questions at private meetings on concerns about the effect of Brexit on Ireland and the EU Commission's tax ruling on Apple.

US businesses expressed concern to him about what the Apple ruling might mean for future investment into the European Union if the Government’s appeal was unsuccessful, he said.

Mr Murphy also attended the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Washington on Thursday.