24 Mr. Leonard asked the Minister for Tourism and Trade the progress, if any, made to date with the Matchmaker Programme, where arising from a proposal from the Washington Trade Conference, 50 Border companies were to be matched with American companies; and the number of companies involved from the Cavan/Monaghan constituency. [21686/96]

I assume that the Deputy is referring to the matchmaking component of the Conference on Trade and Investment which was organised by the US Department of Commerce in Pittsburg last October. As I indicated in a previous reply on this subject, it is estimated that the 50 companies from Northern Ireland and the South who participated in the conference had some 400 matchmaking meetings with the 125 US companies who also attended. I understand that some of the Irish companies present at the Pittsburgh conference were from the Deputy's constituency.

The Deputy will realise, however, that details of the progress being made by individual companies on following-up on contacts made at the Pittsburgh conference are commercially sensitive. Furthermore, follow-up on conferences such as Pittsburgh and similar trade missions and events is very much a day-to-day operational matter for An Bord Tráchtála, ABT, and I have no function in this regard.

If the Deputy has any particular question regarding the details of the follow-up to the matchmaking event at Pittsburgh, I would be happy to ask the relevant officials in ABT to contact him.