Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is not the case that anything is wrong. There are four working groups. The IFSC banking and treasury working group is concerned with banking, asset finance and corporate treasury, together with taxation issues which arise for all areas of the international financial services industry in Ireland. The IFSC funds working group considers the administration and management of investment funds and examines the future of the funds industry in Ireland. It involves recommending legislative, regulatory and taxation initiatives, co-ordinating the marketing effort between IDA Ireland, the Government and industry and maintaining awareness of the impact of international developments on the competitiveness of the industry. The third group is the IFSC insurance working group, which considers issues of relevance to continued development and expansion and increased competitiveness in Ireland as a reputable centre for the provision of insurance products and services. Finally, the IFSC asset management pension funds working group considers issues of relevance to the development of a broader-based institutional asset management business in Ireland. On the pensions side, the role of the group is to promote Ireland as a prime location for the centralised management of pension funds. A subgroup deals with the non-bank finance funding structure. The subgroup considers the role of the IFSC in relation to non-bank sources of funding.

Deputy Adams made an important point, namely, that some representations carry more weight than others. I appreciate that he raised an important point about cochlear implants. Deputy Adams is the elected leader of his party. People might say the leader of a party making a proposition to the Department of Finance for consideration in the budget is in a powerful position. Deputy Adams is in an elected House, in the same way as Deputy Martin or whoever is in charge of the Technical Group, and he has the opportunity to raise a sensitive and important issue of that nature that is personal. The capacity to say that publicly in this forum carries its own weight-----

See this speech in context