Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Brexit raises significant challenges for the Government, the country and the people of Ireland. We have been undertaking contingency planning for this challenge since long before the Brexit referendum was held. The contingency planning began in the Department of Finance in 2015.

There will be certain opportunities for Ireland and other EU countries, particularly in regard to financial services. Those are opportunities for all of Ireland. One third of financial services sector jobs in this country are located outside Dublin, in places like Cork, Limerick, Galway, Letterkenny, Kilkenny and elsewhere. As we seek to grow our international financial services sector and take advantage of opportunities coming from Brexit, I will be doing my best to ensure those opportunities are available to the entire country.

As Minister of State at the Department of Finance, I have responsibility for financial services. As such, I participate in the Cabinet Brexit committee and also lead our international financial services IFS 2020 strategy. This is our five-year strategy for growing our financial services by 30%, which equates to creating roughly 10,000 more jobs in that sector. The strategy's vision is to make ourselves the global location of choice for specialisation and innovation in financial services. We look at the latest developments such as FinTech, RegTech, Insurtech, neo-banking and payments in those different sectors. We do that along with members of industry. I chair a quarterly committee where Government and industry can work together to ensure we are capitalising on the latest opportunities as they arise.

The strategy has been developed on a rolling one-year action plan basis. The plans are flexible and can be adapted depending on what is happening internationally. When the outcome of the referendum became clear in 2016, we adapted our plan and our communications so that we could be in the markets where this would be relevant and where the decision-makers were. We went there to talk about the opportunities of using Ireland as a gateway or bridge into the Single Market. We did so in China, North America and Europe.

The action plan was launched in January 2017. There are two parts to it. The first part deals with the context of Brexit and everything that is important in terms of our offering. This includes our contingency planning, communications plans, the Central Bank, the regulator and some other contextual pieces such as international baccalaureate education. The second part of the plan contains 40 action points across four key pillars that address exactly what we want to do with international financial services over the year ahead. It involves working with industry and looking at the key opportunities we have.

We launched the action plan at the European Financial Forum in Dublin Castle. In excess of 600 attendees from more than 300 companies came to talk about the future of financial services in Europe. It was very significant that they were doing so in Ireland. It gave us an opportunity to talk about our common law jurisdiction, our English-speaking population, our proximity and connectivity to the UK and the rest of Europe, our strengths and why we feel we are the natural location of choice for companies seeking to continue their access to the Single Market after the UK leave the EU. We also discussed the professionalism and expertise of our financial regulator.

One action point in the 40 point plan is to set up a public sector financial services subgroup to engage with the Cabinet committee on Brexit. That group has been formally established and last met on 1 March. It is led by the Department of Finance and is tasked with developing our strategic and prioritised approach to the implications of this referendum for Ireland and the EU. It does not look solely at the opportunities but also the potential risks in regard to consolidations and the future of our financial services in Europe.

We need to be across that to make sure we continue to pursue issues like a capital markets union without any unnecessary delays, but we can also protect the strong offering we have on how we believe financial services should develop into the future. That has been an important part of what we are doing.

In 2016, there were opportunities for outreach under the banner brand and they have continued in 2017 into Asia, North America and Europe to promote those aspects of our financial services and the opportunity we now present post Brexit. In FinTech and payments in particular, in 2016 we developed two strategy papers with industry, and in 2017 they have become specific action points for this year. One quarter of our action plan for 2017 is dedicated to FinTech and payments.

We also sought in 2016, and we are continuing that work this year, to position ourselves as a gateway for financial services, in particular for the Asian economies. In December last year, we were granted a RQFII quota for the trading of Renminbi, which was a very positive development. We have applied for membership of the Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank. We hope to hear positively on that in the course of the coming year.

I have had a series of round-table discussions in 2016 and 2017 with industry. We are holding another one in Dublin Castle tomorrow to give people an opportunity to feed their input into what they believe is happening and the opportunities and risks as we look ahead as a result of Brexit but also on other areas as well. It is not just about Government but Government and industry working together.

Companies are making decisions to come to Ireland as a result of Brexit, not just to Dublin but also to Cork and other cities. Some of them will announce it publicly later in the course of this year. Others will not announce it publicly for their own reasons, be it to do with shareholders, customers, client base or political sensitivities. As we look across to the United Kingdom, UK, we see how certain companies have already been used as a political football and we completely respect the right of those companies not to make public their decisions or declarations in a Brexit context if they choose not to. We also recognise that not every company that needs to relocate itself or part of its entity out of the UK will come here. We understand already from the engagement we have had that companies will be relocating here across financial services from banking to insurance to payments, FinTech, fund management and fund administration as well as asset management.

The issue of the European Banking Authority was raised earlier. We have had a positive engagement with the head of the European Banking Authority. We have raised that with the Commission as well. I will conclude to allow my colleague, Deputy Fitzpatrick, contribute.

See this speech in context