Dr. Deirdre Giblin:

I thank the members for the opportunity to speak to the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment on Ireland’s trade relationship with Canada. I am the ICBA chair and non-executive director. I am also director of development and external engagement with the National College of Ireland, NCI, in Dublin’s north-east inner city. On behalf of NCI, I manage external relationships with stakeholders and represent NCI on a number of forums, including the Dublin Regional Skills Forum. I am the representative for the Minister of Education and a number of patrons on several primary and second level school governing bodies. I am joined remotely by the former ICBA chair, Mr. Chris Collenette. Mr. Collenette is Canadian and has lived in Dublin since 2007, and became an Irish citizen in December 2022. He works as vice-president of corporate development for leading Canadian digital health company, Think Research, and as a consultant to Irish law firm, Philip Lee. Mr. Collenette and I are volunteer directors of the association. We are also accompanied by the ICBA’s executive director, Ms Kate Hickey.

The ICBA is an Irish, non-profit corporation founded in 1978. The ICBA is the representative body of roughly 100 members who do business between the two countries. The core of this is Canadian companies with operations here. The organisation has doubled in size over the past eight years, due in part to Brexit, and to the provisional application of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA. The first Canadian company in Ireland was Canada Life in 1903. With more than one century of Canadian investment in Ireland since then, other notable Canadian companies here include Couche Tard - Circle K, Great-West Life, the owner of Canada Life and Irish Life, Irving Oil, Air Canada, Shopify, Celestica, Brookfield Asset Management and Greenfield Global. In addition, most of Canada’s major banks have operations here, including TD Bank, Bank of Montreal, Scotia Bank, and the National Bank of Canada. Since Brexit, Ireland has increasingly become the gateway to the EU for Canadian companies with dozens of Canadian companies, small and large, choosing it as a location for expansion into the European market. An ICBA member sentiment survey has revealed that strong cultural affiliations, availability of English-speaking talent, and connectivity between the two countries are the key factors attracting Canadian investment to Ireland.

The positivity and confidence in the Ireland-Canada relationship was seen in a recent mission organised by the ICBA to Toronto and Vancouver. On 16 May in Toronto a delegation of 12 members participated in an Ireland Canada business summit with the Toronto chamber, Industrial Development Authority, IDA, and Enterprise Ireland. Delegation meetings with Premier Doug Ford and deputy Mayor Jennifer McKelvie allowed the ICBA to discuss the strength of the Ireland-Canada relationship and the work of the Honourable James Maloney on Irish Heritage Month. In Vancouver the ICBA delegation had a briefing with the Ireland-Vancouver chamber and witnessed the passion and commitment of the chamber members to the Ireland-Canada relationship. The group was honoured to be hosted by the Mayor of Burnaby, Mike Hurley, and to meet with Ministers Brenda Bailey and Jagrup Brar, who both embraced the business economic and cultural alliances between Ireland and Canada. I will now hand over to Mr. Collenette who will speak on inward investment.