Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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It is the strong advice from the industry and those who promote Ireland, particularly Dublin, as a location for financial services industries. These things move on very tight margins. One should consider the proximity of London. The Deputy is very well aware, because we discussed this previously, that for hundreds of years the United Kingdom and Ireland have had a single labour market. Certainly since the Act of Union in 1800, we have had a single labour market. Part of the settlement in 2002 was that the free travel arrangements, which only became part of the European Union more recently, were the norm between Ireland and Great Britain. Therefore, the common labour market idea maintained. There are obviously variations on that depending on the skill set of workers. However, in the case of financial services, it is certainly one labour market. For salary increases, people can move out of Dublin to London. It is less than an hour by flight. Mr. Willie Walsh was with me last week in a different context and told me six flights per day are being put on from Dublin Airport to London City Airport. One can go into the City in approximately 50 minutes. One can see the propensity for movement and the migration of industry. The financial services industry, like many other modern industries, is very mobile and based principally on the ability of the workforce. The key ingredient in financial services is the ability of the employees. They do not really have a raw material. It is a very mobile industry.

For the sake of completeness, I must outline that the current stamp duty on shares results in a yield of €250 million per annum. An FTT of 0.1%, which is the latest that has been proposed, would actually result in a loss of revenue to the Exchequer.