Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I, too, have some questions, most of which arise on the back of points raised by Senators Nash, Craughwell and Paul Daly. I would welcome more detail and exact figures on the prospective growth rates, both in a deal and a crash-out scenario. We are only facing those two prospects or the possibility of a referendum, but we will not go into that.

On the growth rate, there have been two other forecasts that have covered the period since the referendum based on the number of new banking licences that have been issued since the referendum. Overall, could the witnesses quantify the amount of increased activity in financial services in Ireland in that period? Is there a projection for how much that could possibly increase in both the deal and no-deal scenarios? Dr. Cassidy alluded to it in his opening remarks.

Other speakers referred to preparedness. How best can we manage the cliff-edge scenario? As Senator Ó Donnghaile correctly said - I have also made this point in every possible intervention over the past three years - there is no such thing as a good Brexit, but the cliff-edge crash-out scenario is extremely worrying. What increased measures can be taken to manage it by Government actors but also economic, business and civic society actors. As Senator Craughwell correctly pointed out, it is very hard to appoint a Brexit officer if one is also CEO, head of sales, head of cleaning or managing director of a business that employs two and a half people and one is working flat out around the clock.

My final question is a bit more specific. Dr. Cassidy addressed it directly as he was concluding. London is not going anywhere. Even if it is a crash-out scenario and the British economy declines significantly, London will still be one of the world’s major financial centres and it will still be extremely important for Ireland and our financial services sector that we maintain a complementary relationship with the city.

It is, first, a question of how we can maintain that engagement and, second, what we have done so far to maintain it. I am aware that quite a bit of work has been done. I have met more people from the City of London and various representative groups in the past three years than I ever thought I would have to. Senator Craughwell touched on the issue of developing alliances. I appreciate that within the European context, in a deal or a no-deal scenario, the priorities of the Irish economy, particularly of the financial services sector, might differ from those of colleagues in the EU 27. It is a question of how best we can position ourselves within the British economy but also within the EU 27 in order that we maintain access to the City of London and build on what has, to date, been a very strong and positive relationship for both the United Kingdom and Ireland.