Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, I did not. I will say no more.

The drawing of lots does not seem a fair way to decide the fate of those 167 staff. Luck was not with us on the day. We did not have the luck of the Irish or the four-leaved clover in Brussels yesterday. The benefits to Ireland, which would have accrued, would have been enormous in attracting financial services from London, but we must still pursue that objective, irrespective of the decision. We must pursue the financial services to locate in Ireland because we have the best location in terms of language and our location with respect to the United States and the rest of Europe.

I want to compliment the efforts of the Minister, Deputy Simon Coveney, the Minister of State with responsibility for European affairs, Deputy Helen McEntee, and the Minister of State, Deputy Michael D'Arcy, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, and the Irish diplomats in Brussels and throughout the European Union for a magnificent effort by our team. The strategy of withdrawing from the bid to win the relocation of the European Medicines Agency with a staff of 900 staff from London to Dublin was probably the right decision, which strengthened our case for the European Banking Authority. When I heard the outcome yesterday I was tempted to quote from Oscar Wilde's play, "The Importance of Being Earnest", but I decided in the circumstances, taking account of all the work that went into this, that it would be inappropriate to say, "To lose one parent may be regarded as misfortune; to lose both ..." and I will not mention the following words of the quote, other than to say that it does not apply in this case----