Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am pleased to have an opportunity to contribute to the Second Stage debate on the Bill. It is appropriate to recognise the great success we have had in the area of international financial services. Successive Governments have worked on the sector. We as a party are very proud of the role we played in the 1980s in the establishment of the IFSC here in Dublin. Since then, international financial services have developed right throughout the country, and that is important to recognise.

Even in the Minister of State's plan for the next five years or so he has acknowledged some remarkable statistics, with 44,000 people now employed in international financial services. Fourteen of the top 15 global aircraft lessors are now based in Ireland. Ireland is home to 20 of the world's top 25 financial services companies. With more than €4 trillion in fund assets under administration, Ireland is the third largest global investment funds domicile, the largest European domicile for exchange-traded funds, ETFs, and a leading location worldwide for hedge fund administration. Seventeen of the top 20 global banks and 11 of the world's top 15 insurance companies have a presence in Ireland, and the Irish cross-Border insurance sector, the report points out, writes business into more than 100 countries with more than 25 million customers. By any yardstick, this is a very impressive record that Ireland has accrued over time in international financial services. This success cannot be taken for granted because this is a very dynamic industry in which the pace of change is rapid and the nature of the investment is highly mobile. We are increasingly facing a very competitive international environment, and this must be acknowledged and at the fore of the debate on the Bill.

Within the overall figure of 44,000 people, as the Minister of State said, more than 16,000 people are directly employed in the Irish funds industry, which is part of the wider international financial services industry. In that regard, Indecon, which carried out an independent impact assessment for Irish Funds, the industry body, of the industry's contribution to the Exchequer, put the figure at €837 million per annum. I saw this in real terms only last week in Cork, where the Tánaiste officiated at the official opening of the new Clearstream offices in Cork city, part of the Deutsche Börse Group, which operates within the funds industry in the depository space, providing post-trade infrastructure and security services. It now directly employs close to 500 people in the heart of Cork city, having moved in from Cork Airport Business Park. That is a phenomenal success story and we want to see much more of it. The Minister of State has had success in Wexford as well in bringing aspects of the fund industry there - or encouraging it, I should say.

See this speech in context