Neale Richmond (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The reason I raise this point relates to the aftermath of the Brexit decision earlier this month. We know all too well, and we have discussed it in the House, that Brexit will be difficult for Ireland in economic terms, but there will be a few small possibilities, particularly in the area of financial services. The area I am concerned with is passporting. Current EU laws allow European banks to operate branches in the UK that do not need to be separately capitalised from the parent company abroad. Non-EU banks can use their subsidiary to sell services to clients across the EU. However, it is looking increasingly likely that the UK will lose access to the EU market as it will not accept EU laws relating to freedom of movement.

I was very interested to read a report prepared for Deutsche Bank earlier this month. It has already looked at the scenario and assessed that financial services institutions are already looking to passport into other EU countries, with Barclays and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in particular looking at Dublin, and J.P. Morgan also looking to move elsewhere, moving up to 6,500 jobs at the same time. The reason this is so important is that in order for companies to do this, they require a banking licence.

I am worried that the waiting time many institutions are facing to get a banking licence in Ireland is proving to be prohibitive. The Minister can correct me if I have got the timeline wrong on this, but like France, with whose capital, Paris, Dublin competes as a financial sector, expected decisions on applications in Ireland are currently taking, on average, 12 months. However, in other competing jurisdictions, like Frankfurt in Germany and Luxembourg, this is down to just six months. I have received contact from a number of leading companies and financial institutions who, in the wake of Brexit, have been seeking to relocate their operations to Dublin so that they can passport to the wider European Union. They have been put off by the expected delays and lack of flexibility from the Central Bank. I appreciate that our system, as it is, is not a bad system and there is a reason for the way our processes work, but it could be greatly improved. If we are to capitalise on Brexit, where we can, then efforts need to made to reduce these times so that we are not losing out on potential jobs and revenue.