Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I wish to ask the Taoiseach about two European directives concerning financial services which were meant to be transposed into Irish regulations. The first is the payment services directive, due to be implemented in Ireland by November. There are companies such as Western Union, Flexco in Kerry and providers of services to these companies which require the directive to be implemented as soon as possible to retain service capacity in Ireland. The UK authorities propose to have its implementation of the directive in place with regulations by 1 May. The Department of Finance is unable to give an indication, other than to say it will do its best to have it some time by the autumn. In terms of job retention policy, there are probably 400 to 500 jobs in total between direct and support services between Dublin and Kerry in this area alone. Will the Taoiseach put in place someone in the Department of Finance to have this on a priority watch to ensure we are not beaten to it by the United Kingdom and that we do not again weaken our hold on job retention.

In the same vein, I asked the Taoiseach some weeks ago about the anti-money laundering directive which also must be transposed into Irish regulations. No party in the House has any difficulty with either of these regulations. There are firms employing significant numbers of people in financial services which, if the directives are not implemented, would have a difficulty with other EU countries in terms of competition. We will give the Taoiseach any support he needs in this area. Will he indicate if and when matters can be expedited to ensure we keep these jobs?

See this speech in context