Mr. Marc Coleman:

I might take those questions first. As to how we are doing, an intense wave of decisions are being taken in the first two or three quarters of this year by firms relocating from London. I concur with what Mr. Martin Shanahan of IDA Ireland said recently, in that the idea that the entire City of London is going to up stakes and move to Dublin is not realistic. London will remain an important centre. However, I noted a study published in February by the Bruegel institute that stated that, in terms of the wholesale banking sector in London, approximately one fifth of activity could relocate to Dublin. That is 6,000 jobs and is not to be sneezed at.

There are 700,000 people working in the City of London according to a TheCityUK report. Every 1% of that number that we can get is 7,000 jobs. If we even get 3% or 4% of employment from London, which could be approximately one fifth of what might relocate to Ireland, it would represent 10,000 or 20,000 jobs. That could make a significant contribution to offsetting job losses in other parts of the country.

It is early days yet to know how we are doing. We have had a couple of wins with Citadel, Legal & General and, slightly before Brexit, Credit Suisse. This is why FSI would like to see an assessment of the decisions made to date and what has driven them so that we can precede any comment with a clear understanding.

In terms of regulation, as a former central banker in the European Central Bank, I understand that central bankers have to do what they have to do. Let us note that the regulator did a fantastic job during the crisis in restoring our country's reputation. That in itself is a great asset as an attractor of foreign direct investment. I note, however, that the Central Bank has a new strategy from 2016 to 2019. I welcome the Governor, Professor Lane's statement at our annual lunch last year when he noted that the regulator's job was not to prevent firm failure, but market failure. We are seeing a constructive evolution in the Central Bank's approach. We are in a new reality now that we are out of recession and our reputation has been restored. I hope that the new strategy will reflect that. We want to work with the Central Bank and support its call for the resources it needs to meet the demanding challenges not just of Brexit, but of financial technology, or FinTech, which is presenting major challenges to central bankers and regulators. We want to work with the Central Bank so that we can give it industry's thoughts on how best to tackle those.

Regarding the European dimension of this, I welcome the Minister of State's comments. I also welcome the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority, EIOPA, which is trying to survey the behaviour of a sample of various regulators around Europe so as to establish a benchmark and determine the average standard of European regulation. Once we have a benchmark, we can ensure that there is no arbitrage, whereby someone somewhere suddenly and opportunistically undercuts Ireland. If we have worked as hard as we have to restore our reputation, which has benefited Europe, we are entitled to expect that we are not in any way disadvantaged by that.

I would emphasise that everything I have said needs to be done as quickly as possible in terms of understanding the decisions that companies are making, helping the Central Bank to fill the 200 places that are necessary and achieving fairness in the European regulatory environment. Speed is of the essence, given that decisions will be taken in the next couple of months.