Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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57. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to provide financial support to companies and SMEs that may be adversely affected by Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16374/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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At an overall policy level, the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation is primarily responsible for SME policy.  In relation to SME finance, the Programme for Partnership Government sets out that all viable SMEs operating in Ireland should have the opportunity to access sufficient finance to meet their enterprise needs in a manner that supports growth and employment in the economy. 

Government actions to date have ensured that there are already extensive supports available to assist SMEs (over 170 supports are provided by 30 separate agencies).  These supports include the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland, the Credit Review Office, Microfinance Ireland, and the Credit Guarantee Scheme amongst others.  These supports will play an important role in assisting companies and SMEs to meet the challenges of Brexit. The advisory enterprise supports in relation to business planning will be particularly important in assisting SMEs to diversify their exports so as to reduce their exposure to the UK; and/or re-price their products/services (if possible); and/or restructure their cost bases so they can continue trading with the UK during a period of weaker sterling.  These advisory supports will also be important in informing SMEs of private market financial supports and existing State supports that are available.

Last year, the Department of Finance conducted macro-economic analysis on the impact of Brexit, which fed into the Brexit measures in Budget 2017.  My Department is also currently working with the Department of Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation and the Strategic Banking Corporation of Ireland to assess the potential impact of Brexit on the SME sector.  It is not possible at this time to make definitive predictions of the impact of Brexit on SMEs given the uncertainties surrounding the post Brexit relationship between the UK and the EU.

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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59. To ask the Minister for Finance his views on whether Ireland is facing unfair competition in attracting banking, insurance and other jobs here as a consequence of Brexit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [16372/17]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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As the Deputy will be well aware, the area of international financial services (IFS) is extremely competitive.  Although Ireland has been very successful in attracting global leaders in IFS over recent decades we cannot become complacent especially in the face of increased competition from other countries and, of course, in the context of Brexit. 

This is why the Government launched IFS2020 Strategy in March of 2015 which is a whole-of-Government approach to further driving the growth and development of the IFS sector in Ireland which has been developed jointly between the public and private sectors underpinned by annual Action Plans.  These Plans can be tailored on an ongoing basis to ensure that Ireland remains fully capable of dealing with any challenges and opportunities in the area of IFS especially in the lead-up to the exit of the UK from the EU.  In particular, we have to ensure that Ireland's offering as a location of choice for global international financial services remains highly competitive and on a par with our competitors in other EU countries.

It should be noted that in my role as Minister of State for Financial Services, I monitor trends and developments as they impact on the international financial services (IFS) sector.  Arising from this, in a scheduled meeting with Commission Vice President Dombrovskis a number of areas were discussed, including ensuring that there is consistency across EU Member States in the application of European and Member State regulatory standards for financial services.

I raised these issues with the Vice President in the context of potential stability risk to the European financial system.  It was also mentioned that it was also mentioned that there were concerns about an apparent impression that some Member States may apply less than full regulations to financial services activities seeking to relocate from London i.e. regulatory arbitrage. It has to be clarified that these were concerns rather than "complaints" per se and they echo the sentiments of some other Member States. In fact the Chairpersons of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) also voiced similar sentiments recently.