Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

My Department and agencies use a range of opportunities to showcase Ireland by hosting or partnering in national and international events that support our overarching policy objectives across our core programmes of enterprise, innovation and regulation. Last week we welcomed over 800 attendees from 43 countries to the Med in Ireland event and the Innovation Showcase 2015 will be taking place on 8 December following a successful launch last year. In January a major conference on financial services will be hosted in Dublin, organised by my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy Simon Harris.

My ministerial colleagues and I, with the agencies of my Department, also participate in many third party events that take place in Ireland, similar to the Web Summit, and we will continue to provide assistance and for attendance, where appropriate. Between 2011 and 2014 my Department's agencies provided €880,000 in support for the Web Summit.

The Start-up Gathering is a recent example of the potential to host and grow events in Ireland, with close to 400 gatherings in 22 counties. This week also sees the first ever National Digital Week taking place in Skibbereen, with over 3,000 attendees and 60 speakers from both the private and public sector.

Annually, Ireland is the location of choice for many international conferences and events in a wide range of sectors. Our offering as a location is marketed through the brand “Meet in Ireland” which is supported by a dedicated team in Fáilte Ireland.

It is, of course, disappointing that the organisers of the Web Summit have decided to move the event, but it is a commercial decision. The Government has been supportive throughout as the company, an Irish start-up, grew from an event that initially only welcomed 400 people to the success it is today. A commercial decision has been taken to move it to another location. Both IDA Ireland and Enterprise Ireland have had remarkable success in developing start-ups and emerging companies and will continue to do so.

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