Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

On the first question, a huge amount of focus goes into how we can support and further grow the financial services sector here in Ireland. In the post-Brexit environment we have had a number of important successes with regard to that, with companies either moving their headquarters to Ireland or a number of existing companies significantly expanding the number of people they employ here. In the different measurements that have been taken in respect of how different financial centres have performed in the aftermath of Brexit, many of them indicate that Dublin and Ireland have performed well in respect of the assets, business and jobs that we have moved to our country.

Second, on the question about the future of retail banking in Ireland, as opposed to the financial services, which was the theme of the Deputy's first question, clearly the exit of KBC is another significant and very negative development for the Irish banking sector. I know that there is a commercial process under way with regard to that now and a memorandum of understanding between Bank of Ireland and KBC has been agreed, from which both parties have said they want to deliver an outcome. However, given that development, which happened with some speed, the Department of Finance and I are going to have to take a step back and consider our policy framework for the Irish banking sector and what we believe to be the appropriate steps that need to be taken in the coming period.

I would say to the Deputy that, as he will be aware, many of our citizens are now accessing financial services in a way that does not involve them going into branches but instead involves them using technology in a way that allows them to access a full array of financial services. That is a big dimension of what is now happening in the Irish banking landscape.