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

I thank the Minister of State. This is an exciting portfolio and I wish him well in it. A lot of the work depends on how much the Minister of State's senior Minister delegates to him, but I have no doubt that he will be very generous in that regard because I know how busy he is. As the Minister of State mentioned, I was one of several Ministers with responsibility for the previous international financial services strategy, IFS2020. A key commitment of that plan, which has been retained in the current Ireland for Finance strategy, was a focus on developing financial services jobs outside of Dublin. From memory, approximately one third of our financial services jobs are located outside of Dublin. They are not all back-office jobs. Deputy Nash, who was here earlier, knows all about the M1 payments corridor, which proceeds north from here to Letterkenny in Deputy Doherty's constituency, which is a very important hub for insurance services. Tralee in Kerry hosts Fintech services. Kilkenny is another financial services hub. Cork is obviously our second city for financial services and is doing incredibly well in that regard.

The decision on Brexit was made in 2016 and it immediately presented opportunities for us. Covid-19 also presents opportunities for the relocation of businesses and working from home. This aligns with the national planning framework and Project Ireland 2040. Has the Minister of State met with the regional chambers of commerce in relation to beefing up action 7 of the relevant pillar of the strategy? The regional chambers really do have the expertise when it comes to attracting businesses to their own areas.

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