Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The point I constantly make is to consider all of Ireland and its overall offering. IFS2020 has a target of increasing our offering by 30%, or approximately 10,000 jobs, over a five-year period. According to last year's figures, the current figure is just under 40,000. As we increase the number further, I am committed to maintaining at least one third of the overall number outside of Dublin. That is important.

As we came off the back of the summer months last year, we understood that businesses would not wait for the Article 50 process to begin. Some knew that the time horizons for relocating - the application process and moving staff across - would take longer than the two-year period. We continue to work with many uncertainties, but businesses like certainty. When they undertook due diligence exercises prior to the referendum result, many noticed benefits in consolidating their various business arrangements in different parts of Europe. Ireland figured strongly in certain regards.

As we approached the end of the year, it became clear to us that they were going to start making decisions in the first half of this year. That has happened. I must be careful about managing expectations, though. At yesterday's Brexit Cabinet sub-committee, I spoke about some of the positive decisions that had been made in our favour only to find out afterwards that one of those had gone against us. That will happen; there will be an ebb and flow.

We cannot yet put a number on the companies. In Davos, the Minister, Deputy Noonan, referred to there being more than 100 expressions of interest to the IDA. In the insurance field alone, I understand that the Central Bank has received five to ten applications for authorisation and a further 20 companies are at the pre-application stage.

It is difficult for us to discuss the exact number of companies for a couple of reasons. Some will choose Ireland. They will make that decision with their boards in the coming months and submit their applications. Others will choose Ireland as a contingency that they do not need to trigger until much later in the process, so the number is difficult to know. One Asian bank that I have dealt with decided that Dublin would be its gateway into the Single Market. That is the play that we have been making strongly into Asia. The bank's initial figure was in the teens, which was good considering the bank in question, but having monitored the situation as it has developed, that number will grow. If such companies cannot put a number on it, though, neither can I. There is significant interest and we are working everyday to ensure that we are across it.