Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State and I would both accept the question I asked did not get addressed. Ireland is an obvious location for financial services firms looking to set up in the EU. We have a common law system, we are English speaking, there are close cultural similarities and there is a big multinational presence here. More and more, the big firms are deciding not to come here. We see announcement after announcement that they are deciding to locate elsewhere in the EU.

This is partly because IDA Ireland has not been given sufficient resources. It has been given nine extra people. To put that into perspective, The Guardiannewspaper has a Brexit team of nine people. It is partly because we are missing some of the key skill-sets. We should be hiring people who are senior financial services players in the UK for a year or two years to come here and help us with this. It is partly because we lack a strategic approach. I ask the Minister of State, specifically on the numbers, what interaction there has been with the financial services companies in the UK, mainly based out of London, that specialise in providing financial services infrastructure to the market.

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