Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It is primarily a matter for the Department of Finance and the Central Bank of Ireland, along with other Departments. From my perspective, we have made commitments to EU sanctions and we must ensure they are fully implemented, including if that involves the IFSC.

With respect to Deputy Lahart's question, because of the pace of the issue there is a need to respond quickly. Normally, before the EU would impose sanctions on a country or another part of the world, there would be much assessment before making a decision. The judgment was made in this case by EU leaders that we needed to move far more quickly. The truth is there is an element of the unknown in terms of the impact of these sanctions both on Russia and the EU but because of the brutality of what we are seeing, we needed to act quickly to put in place a significant deterrent and make a very clear statement to the Kremlin that the EU would act quickly and together. It has done so. There was a miscalculation that the EU would not have the capacity to do what we have done.

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