Ms Mary Buckley:

Being English-speaking is very important, particularly because we will be the only country within the EU that speaks English as a first language once the UK leaves the EU. On the point about the breakdown of investments and Mr. Donoghue's point about investments coming to Ireland for the first time, one thing we have found with many of our clients is that they come and establish operations in Dublin, then after a period of being in Dublin, they seek to expand their activities. They often go to what we, internally, call second-site solutions where, after a period operating in Dublin, companies go and establish operations in other parts of the country. For example, we would have Northern Trust, which many would be familiar with, and which has very strong funds management activity in Dublin. It has had that there over many years. It has expanded its activities in Limerick and has several hundred people now employed in fund administration activities. We see the same with State Street bank which has locations in Dublin, Kilkenny and elsewhere.

It is not unusual for companies, particularly those in the financial services sector, to start their operations in Dublin and then expand their activities around the country as they become more comfortable and get to know the environment, the footprint and the talent pool of people they need and have.