Mr. John Hughes:

The IDA has a due diligence process before a company is brought into the jurisdiction in the first instance. It would examine the company ownership, management structure and what sectors the company operates in because, as the Deputy will be familiar with, the IDA is targeting companies in medtech, life sciences, ICT, engineering and so on. The IDA would also interrogate international datasets it has access to in terms of beneficial ownership and so forth.

As was discussed earlier in response to Deputy Carthy, there is now an additional criterion of having regard to the UN list that is being maintained at the moment in terms of companies that may have contacts or engagements with the occupied territories. Up to now, the IDA has exclusively targeted companies in those key sectors and has run that due diligence process. They tend to be companies that come from large urban centres in Israel. At the moment, the IDA does not have a pathfinder operating in Israel. The IDA is not currently targeting any investment from Israel in light of current Government policy and developments.