Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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167. To ask the Minister for Finance the volume of commercial trade that took place in shares here in 2016. [36311/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The transaction reporting regime established under the EU Markets in Financial Instruments Directive obliges investment firms to report to competent authorities, relevant details of certain financial transactions they execute, including shares.

The designated competent authority in Ireland is the Central Bank of Ireland and the details of the transaction reporting regime is set out in Regulation 112 of SI 60 of 2007 and relevant EU legislation.

The Central Bank informed me that 230.6 million transactions were reported to the Central Bank in 2016, which includes all financial instruments, not just shares. Out of these transactions, 203.9 million of them relate to non-Irish financial instruments. The Bank was not able to provide a more detailed breakdown of this data at this time.

The Central Bank has highlighted to me that based on Irish Stock Exchange published data, 6.6 million equity trades were executed on its trading venues in 2016. The Central Bank also advised that the Irish Stock Exchange produces annual statistics on activity on its markets which can be accessed at: http://www.ise.ie/Media/News-and-Events/2017/Irish-Stock-Exchange-publishes-review-of-2016.html