John Whelan: Only niche Irish exporters to benefit from Australia deal

Australia represents a highly significant and strategic market for these companies, and the EU free trade deal which will eliminate the import duty on machinery products will certainly assist their sales promotion efforts

The much vaulted 33% export growth opportunities announced by European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Australian prime minister Albanese, at the signing of the free trade deal, will do very little for Irish exporters generally.

The Australia market has been flat for Ireland's exporters over the past decade, and that’s before you take into account inflation over the years.

Ireland’s goods exports to the market were €918m last year, much the same as in 2015, whereas global exports sales from Ireland more than doubled in the period.