Mick Wallace (Wexford, Independent)
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99. To ask the Minister for Finance the total cost of his trip to the Bilderberg meetings, including details of all expenses and per diems of any accompanying staff; if this is paid by the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [17399/16]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy may be aware, I recently attended a number of meetings in Germany. The first of these was with my German counterpart, Minister Wolfgang Schäuble on the 9th June to discuss general economic matters and financial services issues of mutual interest to both Ireland and Germany. I also met with Jörg Asmussen, former member of the Executive Board of the European Central Bank and former Deputy Finance Minister on the 9th June to discuss general economic matters in the wider European context.

Following these meetings I also attended the Bilderberg meeting from 10th-12th June 2016 in Dresden. I, like a number of European ministers, was invited to attend given my position as Minister for Finance. For further information, I would point the Deputy to the Bilderberg Meetings website (www.bilderbergmeetings.org) which includes information on the organisation's governance, steering committee, meetings, attendees, agendas and associated press releases. At this meeting and its workshops I took the opportunity to set out to my fellow attendees the opportunities that exist in Ireland for investors and multinational companies.

The Government is focussed on encouraging and supporting foreign direct investment into Ireland to provide jobs and continue to support economic growth. In January of this year, the IDA announced the highest level of employment in its client companies in its 67 year history. IDA client companies created 18,983 new jobs in 2015. These results mean that more than one-in-five private sector jobs in the economy are as a result of government supported FDI. I would point out to the Deputy that a number of the business attendees represented companies which have very significant investments in Ireland that support thousands of Irish jobs.

The cost of this itinerary (that includes flights, accommodation and travel & subsistence), that will be claimed in the usual way and paid for by the State, is €4,039.15 of which €304.50 is attributable to travel & subsistence expenses for my private secretary who accompanied me.