Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Chair. I have hay fever, so I apologise for all the sneezing. I want to give Ms O'Connell's colleague, Ms Mitchell, a chance to talk about the marketing campaign because I have mentioned it a few times. I have a bit of time but I have a question as well.

I appreciate that this is not going to be 100% within Guaranteed Irish's remit but, with the indulgence of the Chair, I will raise the use of the .ie domain name because it is a bit of a hobby-horse of mine. I know that Guaranteed Irish does not control that, and I am not suggesting it does but it might be able to lobby about it. It is something that drives me wild. A lot of people go to .ie domains. During Covid, people here could not get kids' shoes and had to buy them online. Members of my family bought a pair of kids' shoes from a .ie domain name believing they had come from Ireland, but they were then hit with a customs charge because they came from Britain. They were left scratching their heads about how they came from Britain when they bought from a .ie domain name. The Guaranteed Irish website is its representative in every country. What is its perspective on that issue, particularly with regard to exporting and looking outwards around the world? Would it be worthwhile to protect the .ie domain name? Should more be done in that regard or does it not matter? Should people do a bit of homework themselves to find this information? The person I know felt that they did do their homework by researching and finding a shoe shop with, as they thought, a .ie domain name. They decided it ticked the box and they were getting goods that did not travel far. They did so specifically in the interest of sustainability, carbon miles and all of that kind of stuff. We were all busy doing other things during Covid and this person was very frustrated and annoyed that, having gone to so much trouble, when they had to return the shoes, they had to be sent to an address in England. I would welcome the witnesses' thoughts on that. Ms Mitchell can then have the rest of my time to talk about the campaign. It would be good for us to hear what the aims are and so on.