Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for the opportunity to raise the importance of the Irish Stock Exchange to the Irish economy and to the growth of our indigenous Irish companies. I welcome the commitments in the programme for Government to support the Irish Stock Exchange. However, I would like to see this commitment followed up with concrete action to ensure its growth and success. I am glad to see the Tánaiste met the Stock Exchange team on Tuesday and I hope he will take away some of their requests. I know a request is with the Minister for Finance for a meeting ahead of the budget.

Many brilliant companies have come through the Irish Stock Exchange, including Ryanair, Smurfit Kappa and the Dalata Hotel Group. The Irish Stock Exchange also supports a thriving ecosystem of brokers, advisers and legal services, etc. Ireland has been losing out by not supporting more indigenous enterprises to access private capital through public markets, which is evidenced by the relatively small number of IPOs here over the past decade. Many Irish companies choose to go abroad, particularly to the US. I know the Government is prioritising improving our competitiveness. I suggest a vibrant stock exchange here in Dublin is essential to achieving those goals. If we are serious about growing our indigenous enterprise base, we must build the right environment to allow companies to scale using all sources of capital, including public equity markets.

The programme for Government commits to exploring ways to enhance the Irish Stock Exchange as a vital source of equity and growth for indigenous businesses. This must now be backed by decisive action. Ahead of budget 2026, I urge the Government to deliver on these commitments by building on the progress made in budget 2025. Specifically, Euronext Dublin has proposed targeted, relevant and costed measures for budget 2026 that would support more Irish companies to accelerate their growth by raising finance in capital equity markets by way of IPO. These proposals include introducing a stamp duty exemption on the trading of shares in companies valued under €1 billion; increasing the lifetime limit for capital gains tax entrepreneur relief by €1 million to €2 million, specifically for disposal of shares on approved EEA markets; creating an incentivised saving and investment account scheme; and establishing an Irish equity market growth fund to provide equity finance to companies listed or intended to list on Irish markets, with a particular focus on Irish scale-ups.

Ireland currently employs a stamp duty of 1% on the trading of shares. However, Ireland's rate is an outlier when compared with other European states, many of whom have a 0% rate or at most, a 0.2% or 0.3% rate. Stamp duty should be exempted from the trading of shares for smaller and mid-cap companies. In Ireland, none of our retail banks offer equity products to retail investors. In the UK, the ISA is used widely by people to save money and let it grow over many years. In Ireland, there is €60 billion sitting in current accounts losing value. This is money that could be put to work and would allow people to generate additional income over the years, while incentivising financial security. An Irish saving and investment account would help achieve this. I look forward to hearing from the Minister about his planned engagement with Euronext Dublin and the Government's plan to support this vital source of equity capital ahead of budget 2026.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Deputy Timmins for providing me with the opportunity to speak on this matter. Ireland’s equity markets are diverse, encompassing public and private participants and a wider ecosystem that includes a large number of professional services firms. It is clear that public equity markets in Europe, including Ireland, have faced significant challenges over the past decade for a variety of overlapping reasons, including competition from private equity and from more liquid US capital markets. The increasing importance of large stock market indices linked to the rise in passive investment strategies has also been a pull factor in listings activity gravitating towards the largest stock exchanges. As such, EU solutions will need to be found to address the common challenges faced by EU exchanges.

The European Commission has launched the savings and investments union strategy, which includes measures to advance the capital markets union, CMU, project and which has support from ministers, Heads of State and Governments. The strategy identifies key measures to help companies access public equity markets, such as the establishment of EU markets infrastructure, reforms to listings rules and measures designed to increase retail investor participation in capital markets and to promote SME investment research. These measures build on those contained within the CMU action plan of 2020, which included a number of legislative files, including the Listings Act, the European Single Access Point and the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive, MiFID, II review, which are currently being transposed. The savings and investments union strategy will build on the progress made by the CMU action plan. Ireland is a strong supporter of this initiative and is actively involved in its development, including measures specifically designed to promote companies seeking to access funding through initial public offerings.

At national level, it is the Government’s strongly held view that Ireland’s capital markets are essential to the growth of homegrown businesses, especially those aiming to expand internationally. This was most recently evidenced by the introduction of a corporation tax relief for listing expenses announced as part of budget 2025 and which is now in place with an overall expenses limit of €1 million per listing.

When introducing budget 2025, the then Minister for Finance, Deputy Chambers, announced he had decided to examine further potential measures. He stated:

To further support Irish businesses to grow and scale, in the coming year my Department will, subject to state aid considerations, introduce a stamp duty exemption. This measure would enable Irish SMEs to access equity via financial trading platforms designed to support their funding needs.

This position is reflected in the 2025 Programme for Government: Securing Ireland’s Future, which states that the Government will, “Explore opportunities to enhance the Irish Stock Exchange as a vital source of equity and growth for indigenous businesses”. The Department of Finance is engaged in giving effect to that commitment and has actively engaged with Euronext Dublin, formerly the Irish Stock Exchange, as part of that work. I met with the CEO and some members of his management team recently. It is very much part of the programme of work in the Department of Finance at the moment.

Edward Timmins (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State for his reply. The threat of US tariffs has made it even more urgent for us to support Irish indigenous companies, and the Stock Exchange is crucial to this goal. While foreign multinational companies have created great prosperity in this State, geopolitical difficulties have underscored the need to ensure a positive regulatory landscape for Irish companies to grow and succeed in. Ireland will assume the Presidency of the European Union in the second half of 2026. I hope that the implementation of the EU savings and investments union will be a core priority of our Presidency.

There has been much media attention - indeed too much - on delistings from the Irish market. Delistings are a natural part of the cycle. Last year, there were 129 delistings across seven Euronext markets. Only five of these happened in Ireland. The problem is not the scale of delisting but the lack of a pipeline of new companies seeking to list. From other European and Euronext markets with pipelines of new listings, we have seen that government policy has significant influence. Reducing exit taxes on exchange-traded funds, ETFs, may incentivise investment in such funds and lead to more trade on exchanges. Unless there are accompanying policy initiatives to increase the number of new listings, however, reducing these taxes will not guarantee the future of the Irish Stock Exchange and ETFs will be of no benefit to Ireland's real economy or Irish companies. There are not enough Irish stocks or stocks traded in Ireland to put into an ETF basket. Even if exit taxes were reduced, the rate would still be 33% higher than the 0% we have proposed for an incentivised saving and investment account scheme, which would be subject to an investment limit of €40,000 and which we believe would have a much greater impact on shifting domestic savings into productive investments in the real economy.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I will outline one EU-level capital markets initiative that officials in the Department of Finance are working on. That is the Listings Act. It is a package of measures agreed late last year and currently being transposed by the Department of Finance and the Department of enterprise. It supports improved access to market-based sources of financing for EU companies, particularly smaller firms such as those listed on SME growth markets. Key elements of the Listings Act include the introduction of simpler prospectus rules and requirements, more proportionate market abuse rules and provisions to allow companies use multiple-vote share structures, thereby allowing company founders to retain control while accessing funding on public markets.

The Listings Act also introduces measures to encourage and enhance the production and distribution of investment research on mid-sized companies and SMEs. This is essential if we are to encourage investment in such companies. The simplification and harmonisation of prospectus rules will make it easier and less expensive for growing indigenous businesses to list on the Irish Stock Exchange. I am pleased to inform the House that the Minister has decided to raise the prospectus exemption threshold to €12 million from the current €8 million. This will reduce the regulatory burden for smaller issuers and increase their access to capital in order to invest for long-term growth.

The Deputy is right that the value of money on retail deposit offers major potential. The savings and investments union, on which the Government is hugely engaged, will be a channel to do that.

We are also in the process of updating the Ireland for Finance strategy, in respect of which there is a commitment in the programme for Government. A public consultation process in that regard will open in the coming weeks, and I encourage submission to it. We hope to publish the strategy early in the new year.