Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his questions. I have a script, but I will not read it. Instead, I will discuss what we went through for a few minutes and then answer the Deputy's questions.

Approximately two months ago, I started what was effectively a road trip. In that time, I have been to 16 European countries. This was done to put boots on the ground, meet finance Ministers and try to put forward the best case that we could for the EBA. At the same time, the EMA was being pursued by officials from the Department of Health. Perhaps a month ago, we made the determination that we would not win the EMA. We had a choice between pursuing two bids or one. Had we pursued two, we were of the view that we would not get into the round of three on either. That calculation turned out to be correct. We put in place a strategy to try to win one of the bodies. A country could only win one; none could win two. If a country won one, it would be excluded from hosting the second.

We withdrew from the bid for the EMA because we had always believed that we had a greater chance of winning the banking authority. That is why we prioritised it. We put boots on the ground. I thank the officials from the Department of Finance and, in particular, the Minister of State, Deputy McEntee, who put in a big shift, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, Deputy Coveney, and the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, because the process was operated strongly for between four and six weeks. We did everything we could to win one of the authorities.

I will try to answer as many questions as I can. The EMA and the EBA comprised approximately 900 and 200 jobs, respectively. One of my first visits was to the banking authority in Canary Wharf. Deputy Donnelly spoke about the bid, but this effectively turned out to be a political decision. The Commission carried out different types of assessment in respect of the EMA and EBA. It used a traffic light system for the former but not the latter, where it said that everyone was qualified. I never encountered questions about our regulatory capabilities when visiting the 16 capitals. Similar to the assessments performed by the Commission, issues of housing and the cost of living were not raised. No city in Ireland other than Dublin was considered. Primarily, the cities presented were capitals - Warsaw, Vienna, Paris, Brussels, Luxembourg, etc.

As to what we have learned, I will not pretend. Along with officials, I spent a large amount of time travelling. I believed that we could get into the round of three and that, if we were up against Paris and Frankfurt, we could win. I turned out to be incorrect. We did not win, but we did not lose. It went to the toss of a coin. We have learned a major lesson. There has been reportage on it, some inappropriately negative. People have been saying that we have no friends. We went head to head against the Germans and the French. They are much larger countries than us. We beat the Germans and, when their votes were distributed, we were level with the French. The French did not beat us. It was a hell of an achievement. I thank the officials in the Departments of Finance and Foreign Affairs and Trade.

I will finish on one point. Our ambassadors and diplomatic corps on the ground have been superb. Their work probably goes unnoticed to some extent. They are professional and very capable. As such, I thank Deputy Donnelly for viewing this issue in a positive light. It is easy to take the Roy Keane view that, if we do not win, we lose. We were not beaten and we did not win. It went to the toss of a coin. I am disappointed that we did not win on the toss.

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