Mr. Oliver Gilvarry:

A peer review was done of Ireland and other competent authorities in the application of the prospectus directive. It outlined the pluses and minuses. That report was positive overall in how the Central Bank operates but there was one issue relating to resourcing and the need for greater resources. That was dealt with. It is an example of the process demonstrating that we are a good regime and applying the rules in an appropriate way. Our concern, which is not purely from the Irish perspective, is that if the process is centralised to ESMA, will we see those timelines slipping? From an Irish perspective we will lose the listing business but the Union will also lose. That feeds into the desire to build a capital markets union.

However, the process damages this because decisions will be made not to list debt instruments or equity in Europe and instead to use another jurisdiction where companies will know the timelines and framework and have certainty.

Another issue is that changes to the prospectus framework were only agreed by co-legislators in recent months and the Commission is now proposing further changes. This creates uncertainty regarding the framework in Europe and, again, does not help us to develop a capital markets union.