Mr. Oliver Gilvarry:

London has always been a financial centre and it will remain one. A certain amount of business will be lost. From what we see, entities currently based in London are looking for jurisdictions within the EU 27 to relocate to. Dublin is one of those. We are always in the top numbers being considered. That is to ensure continuation, as Mr. Callinan highlighted. It is too early to say what the impact on London will be. It is too early to say what type of deal will be made. The concept of the equivalence assessment was mentioned. Will we or the UK have to rely on what regimes we currently have in place in certain European directives or regulations, or will they be rewritten? Firms are making the decision now to say that they cannot wait for that and will set up operations within the EU 27 to ensure continuation of service to their European clients. London is still London and always will be. It will be a centre of liquidity, similar to New York, Hong Kong and Singapore, but it will see a fall-off of some European business.

On the point about us being forward in attracting financial services, there are a number of other jurisdictions. The competent authorities would have competition mandates. They are very proactive. To reiterate what Mr. Callinan said, the IDA has been very proactive, having roadshows, and a number of Government Ministers and our officials have been at those as well. The sense we get is that Dublin and Ireland generally - it is not focused purely on Dublin, since there is also a focus on locations outside Dublin due to lower costs - are comparing very well. We find that many firms want the consistent approach of the certainty of the framework and the engagement with the regulator. They are not looking for light touch regulation. There is a single rule book, as we call it, for regulation in Europe. They want something that will give them a clear answer and certainty about how they will be treated. Dublin is very high up there and we compare very favourably with a number of larger member states on that basis.